Lachen Und Schweigen

This volume presents contributions about laughter and silence as special forms of court communication in medieval and early modern literature. Laughter and silence refer to speech in a variety of ways: they question what has been said or confirm it, frame or reflect it. But they also set limits to speech and define its effect while they are still bound by rules. This volume examines various dialogic strategies of laughter and silence; these range from court romances and heroic epics to minnesong and myths as well as didactic and theoretical texts.