Le voci femminili della lirica cortese tedesca

Abstract

In the framework of the medieval German literature (XII-XIV century), particularly in the courtly tradition, a major role is played by the genre of Minnesang (“love song”), whose rich repertoire of lyrical forms includes the subgenre of the so-called Frauenlieder, i.e. poems and stanzas in which the speaker is a woman. The production of Frauenlieder is usually attributed to male authors, apart from some texts that are transmitted anonymously (Haubrichs 1989; Kasten 1990; Schweikle 1994). However, the academic debate features also opposing views, which do not exclude female authorship for the German Frauenlieder (Scherer 1874; Burdach 1883), similarly to what is observed in Occitan literature, where a conspicuous production of female poetry and music flourishes thanks to the numerous trobairitz, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260. The present paper aims to present an analysis of some Frauenlieder – also moving from a comparison with the lyric poetry of the trobairitz – in order to identify traits related to themes, language, style, ideology that can allow a possible attribution of such texts to female authors.