Bodies of Water as Epistemological Challenges in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature. With a Focus on Late Medieval Entertaining and Didactic Narratives

Albrecht Classen

Abstract

This study reflects the new concern with water as an essential force in all of life. Too little water means death, and too much water can have the same effect. Humans need good drinking water, and all cultural history has already confirmed the essential function of water. Living in the Anthropocene today, taking care of water and respecting nature’s resources, both from a historical-literary and a natural-scientific perspective constitutes a conditio sine qua non for our future. Studying medieval and early modern writers’ and artists’ stance toward water provides us with a critically important discursive platform to understand the relationship between people and their natural environment in deep terms, uncovering the history of water awareness as it still affects us today.

Keywords

Water in medieval and early modern literature; Boccaccio; Christine de Pizan; Sebastian Brant; Eulenspiegel; Georg Wickram; Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen

Corresponding Author

Albrecht Classen, Dept. of German Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.

Citation

Classen, A. (2025). Bodies of Water as Epistemological Challenges in Medieval and Early Modern European Literature. With a Focus on Late Medieval Entertaining and Didactic Narratives. Journal of Arts and Humanities, 1(1), 01-26.