[Mediaevistik] Promotions- und Postdoc-Stellen in Cambridge zur 'Kaiserchronik'

[Henrike Laehnemann]

Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen,



im letzten Jahr konnte ich bereits Stellen in Cambridge an die Liste weiterleiten. Inzwischen ist das von Mark Chinca und Chris Young in Cambridge initiierte, großangelegte Projekt zur 'Kaiserchronik', das vom AHRC (Arts and Humanities Council) gefördert wird, gut vorangekommen. Im Rahmen des Projekts sind jetzt zwei *weitere* Doktorandenstellen zu vergeben und vor allem auch eine weitere der begehrten Postdoc-Stelle, ein sogenannter 'Research Associate'-Posten; diese ist auf ein Jahr begrenzt, bietet aber eine ideale Möglichkeit, z.B. die Zeit zwischen der Einreichung und Publikation einer Dissertation zu überbrücken. Unten sind Kurzbeschreibungen der Rollen des Research Associates und Umrisse für die beiden anvisierten Promotionsprojekte. Genaueres findet sich auf der Ausschreibungsseite der Uni Cambridge (http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/jobs/). Wer sich auch informell erkundigen will, kann das direkt bei Chris Young (cjy1000 at cam.ac.uk ) tun.



Prof. Henrike Lähnemann

Chair of German Studies | School of Modern Languages | Newcastle University | GB - NE1 7RU Newcastle upon Tyne

Tel.: 0044 191 2087513 | henrike.laehnemann at ncl.ac.uk



***



The Kaiserchronik (c.1150) is one of the great monuments of medieval literature. Chronicling the reigns of Roman and German kings and emperors, from the earliest times to the twelfth century, it projects a magnificent historical sweep in which the German-speaking peoples and their rulers feature as actors on the stage of ancient history and heirs to the legacy of Rome as capital of the Christian West. It is the first verse chronicle to have been written in any European vernacular. Yet despite its importance for literary and historical studies alike, it has been surprisingly neglected. This project is intended to yield a complete understanding of the extraordinary cultural resonance of the Kaiserchronik, and offer a transformative reassessment of the place of history-writing in the development of German literature in the Middle Ages.


The project has attracted funding of c.£950,000 from the AHRC. The team is based in Cambridge and assembles experts in the fields of medieval literature, language and history, with special collaborations with the University of Marburg and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Over its lifetime, the project will produce the first-ever complete critical edition of the Kaiserchronik, accompanied by English translation, full introduction and commentary. 
In addition, the project will research the historical and literary background to the chronicle: the twelfth-century context from which it emerged, and the reasons for its enduring appeal over the following four and a half centuries. The results will be presented through major events in Cambridge, international conferences, and special issues of academic journals.



Research Associate

The successful candidate will be expected to carry out specified assignments in support of the project. Principally this will involve assisting with the editorial process leading to publication of the critical edition. Specifically this will include checking transcriptions of the manuscripts; collating the manuscript transmission of the text; compiling the critical apparatus for the edition.



PhD 1

The thesis will deal with some aspect of linguistic history or the history of metrical form / stylistics, or the overlap between the two, either in the 12th century or longitudinally, from the 12th century until any time up to the late 16th century. An over-reliance on 19th-century edited texts that levelled out linguistic variation led to a quantitative decline in research on Middle High German language compared with that in other periods. The return to the manuscript base over the last 20 years has reinvigorated the area, but there is still much work to do. The significant temporal and geographical spread of the Kaiserchronik's transmission as well as the existence of three different recensions (two of which were updated on linguistic, stylistic and metrical grounds) provide the basis for a variety of questions and approaches. Examples of possible topics include:

The language of the original (in all its aspects), which has still not been examined in any detail.

Morphological or syntactical changes introduced by recensions B and C.


(Scribal) dialects of Middle High German.


·         Vocabulary (particularly the tension between courtly and non-courtly terms, and the use of French loans).

·         The metre and style of recension A in the context of Early MHG texts.

·         Metrical and rhythmic developments in literary language between c.1200 and c.1250.


·         A synchronic or diachronic study of any major linguistic feature on the basis of the Kaiserchronik corpus (agreement phenomena, serialization of pronouns, negation, use of genitive as object case).



PhD 2

The thesis will deal with the relationship between the Kaiserchronik and the writing of world (or universal) chronicles that flourished from the 13th century and became a dominant genre in the late Middle Ages. The rise of chronicle writing is well acknowledged, but our understanding of it is far from complete. There is good (if not abundant) work on Rudolf von Ems's Weltchronik and Heinrich von München's world chronicle compilation; less is known about the Christherre-Chronik (although recently edited) and Jans Enikel's Weltchronik. However, these popular texts, which between them amassed some 180 manuscripts, deserve much more attention than they have hitherto received from scholarship. They are, critically, the context for the C recension of the Kaiserchronik. Examples of possible topics include:

·         The relationship between the Kaiserchronik C and any or all of Rudolf von Ems's Weltchronik, Christherre-Chronik and Jans Enikel's Weltchronik.

·         The relationship of key manuscripts from recensions A, B, and C to specific historiographical contexts.

·         An investigation of specific manuscripts and their socio-literary / historical background, e.g. Berlin Staatsbibliothek, mgf 923 Nr 12 (which combines the Kaiserchronik with Rudolf von Ems) or the 1594 Tegernsee manuscript (Munich BSB, cgm 965).

·         The relationship between the Kaiserchronik and other forms of historical transmission (in Latin and the vernacular) in the late Middle Ages (annals, letters, chronicles of all sizes, legal documents).
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