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Christina Fischer

Inside and Outside View: Narrator Presence in Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynawn (Owein)

There are no authorial comments [in Owein] on the significance of events or situations, there are no formal rhetorical passages to amplify the material or to explore the emotions. It follows that there are no soliloquies, descriptive monologues or imaginary debates. The only narrator is the anonymous author who never intrudes or intervenes. (Brynley F. Roberts)

Despite this observation, with the Welsh Owein we have a narrative that conveys emotions, individual characters and individual literary aesthetics. So in what narrative strategies of the narrator can we locate these?

The initially seemingly reserved medieval Welsh narrator has other stylistic means and strategies at his disposal in order to become visible or audible as an individual narrative authority and 'artist' than the stringently commenting and evaluatively explicit narrator of Yvain, as well as that of the other continental versions. These narrative strategies are to be worked out in this project. On a second level, the function of the narrator will be examined in the context of his presence with regard to the development of a character and, moreover, his effect on the recipients.

In order to highlight the specific characteristics of the Middle Welsh narrator, the Owein will be systematically analyzed with regard to narrative attitude and perspective. The two versions in the Llyfr Coch Hergest and Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch are used for this purpose. In a “sentence-by-sentence analysis”, the function and effect of the representation of perception and emotion and ornamentation in narrative and character speech will be analyzed both stylistically and semantically. If necessary, narratological approaches can be helpful as theoretical tools.

A comparison with Chrétien de Troyes' Yvain and the Old Norse version (Ívens Saga) should also provide information on how strong or weak the narrator's presence is in terms of his proximity to and distance from his own Welsh narrative tradition. This will be investigated primarily for the Owein, but also requires an examination of native Middle Welsh texts in the narrower sense (Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi) and texts that take up foreign material from continental Old French narrative cultures (ex. Ystoria Bown o Hamtwn, Cân Rolant).

The aim of this project is to better and more systematically identify the medieval Welsh narrator and to make his narrative strategies more interpretable.

Publications

Collaboration on: Buhez Sante Barba « Vie de Sainte Barbe » de 1608. Édité par Paul Widmer avec la collaboration de Christina Fischer et Ricarda Scherschel. Rennes: TIR 2013.
Zu Pelletiers Vorlage des 'Buhez Sant Gwenole'. Zusammen mit Paul Widmer (Universität Zürich). In: Mélanges En L'Honneur De Pierre-Yves Lambert. Guillaume Oudaer, Gael Hily &Herve Le Bihan (Hgg.). Rennes: TIR 2015. S. 51-55.
The significance of Cynon’s story-within-a-story for the narrator’s presence in 'Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn'. In: Adapting Texts and Styles in a Celtic Context. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Processes of Literary Transfer in the Middle Ages. Studies in Honour of Erich Poppe. Axel Harlos & Neele Harlos (Hgg.). Münster: Nodus 2016. S. 177-183.
Innensicht und Außensicht. Zur Figurenpsychologie in Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn (Owein). In: Emotion und Handlung im Artusroman. Cora Dietl et al. (Hgg.). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2017. S. 99-115.
Fischer, Christina & Reich, Björn (Hgg.): Losz büchlin von kurtzwil wegen. Gedruckt von Michael Furter, Basel um 1510. In: Marco Heiles, Björn Reich & Matthias Standke (Hgg.): Gedruckte deutsche Losbücher des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: Hirzel 2021. S. 123-147.
Von der mittelalterlichen Rinderraub-Erzählung zum irischen Nationalepos? Die Táin Bó Cúailnge. In: Epen der Weltliteratur. Eine komparatistische Einführung. Manuel Bauer & Nathanael Busch (Hgg.). Darmstadt: wbg 2023. S. 93-101.

Lectures

The significance of Cynon’s story-within-a-story for the narrator’s presence in 'Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn'. Symposium: Adapting Texts and Styles in a Celtic Context. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Processes of Literary Transfer, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 23.-26.7.2014.
Innensicht und Außensicht. Zur Figurenpsychologie in Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn (Owein). Kolloquium der Internationalen Artusgesellschaft, Sektion Deutschland/Österreich: Emotion und Motivation (Figuren-)Psychologisierungen in der Artusepik, Gumpoldskirchen bei Wien, 24.–27.02.2016.
Táin Bó Cúailnge: "Ireland`s closest approach to a great epic". Vortrag bei der Ringvorlesung 'Epen der Weltliteratur', Philipps-Universität Marburg, 16.12.2020.
Narrative Strategien im mittelkymrischen Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn (Owein) - 'Die Geschichte von der Gräfin vom Brunnen'. Gastvortrag im Hauptseminar 'Iwein', Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen,11. Februar 2021.
Irische immrama (Meerfahrten in die Anderswelt): Navigatio Sancti Brendani - Die Seereise des Heiligen Brendan. Vortrag bei der 'Ringvorlesung zur europäischen Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte', Philipps-Universität Marburg, 07.12.2022.
Thoughts and perceptions: views into characters and the narrator's presence in Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn. Vortrag beim International Congress of Celtic Studies XVII Utrecht, 27.07. 2023.

Project organisation

International Celtic Studies Postgraduate Seminar 2012, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 17.–19. August 2012.
Adapting Texts and Styles in a Celtic Context. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Processes of Literary Transfer, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 23.–26. Juli 2014.
since 2017 (co-) organisation of the "Interdisziplinäres Literaturwissenschaftliches Kolloquiums" (ILK), Philipps-Universität Marburg (Arbeitsgruppe 18 bei MARA)

Memberships

International Arthurian Society, German and Austrian branch