Grenzüberschreitender Verkehr oder uneigentliche Rede? Allegorische Assistenzfiguren des Erzählers und ihr diegetischer Standort

Abstract

This essay focuses on scenes containing a dialogue between the narrator and a personification allegory. Using examples from ‘Iwein’, ‘Parzival’ and the Old French ‘Voir dit’, this study investigates how such passages can be placed outside or within the diegesis. In the case of ‘Iwein’ and ‘Parzival’, the contrasting use of tenses proves revealing, especially in view of numerous motivic parallels. While these two cases feature transgressions from the narrative, the ‘Voir dit’ presents the opposite case: the appearances of allegorical figures in the diegesis evoke a play with narrative levels that deliberately seems to keep their classification open.