The revision of the Medieval Arthurian Epic in East German Literature
Abstract
This article deals with the productive reception and re-working of the Medieval Arthurian topic in the theatre of the former GDR. In Die Ritter der Tafelrunde, the East German playwright Christoph Hein dramatises the decadence and subsequent disappearance of chivalrous ideals in the decline of the Middle Ages. The play was first performed in April 1989, only months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, bringing a definitive end to the GDR. The fact that the play’s central theme was the disappearance of an obsolete social and political system made it easier for the Arthurian court to be read as a metaphor for Erich Honecker’s government. But, beyond its ad hoc interpretations, it is worth studying this drama as part of an ongoing trend throughout this country’s history: the adoption of the literary legacy, represented in this case by Wolfram von Eschenbach’s novel Parzival and its manipulation for extra-literary purposes.
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