Das poetische Phantasma vom Tod (und) der jungen Frau

The essay discusses the textual tradition of the ‘Death and the Maiden’ theme, examining its various forms in different genres and discourses of medieval and early modern literature. Starting with the pertinent constellation of Death and Bride within the Danse Macabre, it deliberately goes backwards through chronological order. In the German versions, the personification of Death is a male figure who, in his speech to the bride who is to die, takes misogynistic positions while simultaneously displaying aggressive erotic ambition by offering himself as the new, unexpected and unwanted bridegroom. Similar statements are made by the male Death in his dispute with Ackermann, who complains about the premature death of his wife Margarethe in the famous work Der Ackermann aus Böhmen [The Ploughman from Bohemia/The Ploughman and Death] by Johannes von Tepl. Ackermann firmly opposes Death’s arguments against human, and especially female, vanity; thus, the dispute pits a negative concept of anthropologyand femininity against a positive one. A different approach is seen in Petrarch’s Triumphus mortis, where the dying Laura causes the female impersonation of Death to undergo a metamorphosis, transforming Morte from a dark and horrific figure into a beautiful one upon the face of the dead Laura. These examples demonstrate that there are clear antitheses in medieval and early modern representations; there is no linear chronological development, but rather anongoing antagonism between these concepts. The female body is the focal point of the debate about vanity, and the aspect of (male) erotic desire, or even sexual aggression, is evident in all variants, making it an essential part of the whole theme.