Discovering ‚Heimat‘: Literary Concepts and Imaginations of Belonging in the Middle Ages

The aim of this subproject is to describe, classify and interpret the phenomena in medieval literature that are referred to today as 'Heimat' (home). In other words, it deals with individuals' sense of belonging to places, times, things, practices, and social groups, as well as the literary concepts and imaginings associated with such affiliations. It is important to note that the typical practices and representations associated with 'Heimat' since the 19th century, such as village work contexts or landscape images, were not evident in the Middle Ages.

Even the Old High German and Middle High German terms 'heimôti' and 'heimuote' only partially correspond to 'Heimat' in the modern sense. On the other hand, an emotional and sensual attachment to people and land ('liute und lant') developed in isolated cases during the Middle Ages. Viewed diachronically, this attachment apparently became increasingly prevalent in people's consciousness. Above all, secular and spiritual texts that tell of figures who have been exiled, abducted, fled or otherwise distanced from their familiar surroundings address the theme of ‚Heimat‘ ex negativo.

This awareness of homeland as something lost is captured in the reflections of individual characters, so that ‚Heimat‘ appears primaly as a phenomenon of individual experience. This subproject aims to describe the 'discovery of home' in medieval literature, based on a broad range of texts, and to interpret it in terms of literary history and cultural anthropology, in line with the SFB's model theory. Firstly, all relevant passages from German literature from the 9th to the 15th century will be collected, categorised and entered into a database. This typology will then form the basis for interpreting individual texts and providing an overview that considers the diachronic changes in the concept of home.