Bilder von Arabern und Türken im 16. Jahrhundert: Fortunatus (1509), Schöne Magelone (1527), Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587)

Abstract

The article goes over the manner in which the German Renaissance world confronts itself with otherness, in particular the Islamic, Arabic and Turkish worlds. To this end it considers, above all, three very well-known ‘Prosaromane’ (Fortunatus, Schöne Magelone and Historia v. D. Johann Fausten) that are expressions of the three phases of the German language following the Renaissance. The first is marked by a general optimism, the second already shows the signs of a lack of confidence in the chance of improvement, the third is evidently an age of decline and pessimism. The article wants to show how the perception of otherness – otherness of language, customs, landscapes and above all religion – is perfectly functional in defence mechanisms. The more the European context is flourishing and optimistic, the weaker the sense of otherness, the more the authors have a living feeling of the economic superiority of their own country, the more interest there is in what is far-off. Little by little as the crisis is felt, otherness loses its charm, and when an author pushes us in its direction it almost always leads to its demonization.