Narration – Argumentation – Epimythion. Zum rhetorischen Potential exemplarischer Kurzerzählungen (Fabel, Gleichnis, historisches Exempel) des Mittelalters

Abstract

This paper draws on new research impulses towards an ‘epistemology of the exemplary’, linking them to research approaches to exemplary short narratives from the Middle Ages. Using three excellently chosen narratives (a fable, a historical example and a parable), the possibilities are shown that short narratives have to recreate the relationship between narrative (narratio) and epimythion (moralisatio). Various versions are proposed for each of the three short narratives, which each use different narrative and argumentative techniques depending on the context to draw different conclusions from a narrative, thus fully realizing its rhetorical potential.