deist rehtiu jegerîe. Re-reading the bast Episode in Gottfried von Strassburg’s ›Tristan‹: A Metapoetic Approach

Abstract

This article rereads the bast episode in Gottfried von Strassburg’s ›Tristan‹ from the perspective of a specific interpretive problem. It takes the prevailing scholarly tendency to read the bast metaphorically in relation to the romance’s love plot as its starting point. Rather than challenging this approach, the article complements it by exploring an alternative dimension of meaning grounded in the formal design of the episode itself. By considering the narrative function and formal-semantic significance of rehtiu jegerîe (l. 3184) together, the analysis identifies a turning point in the narrative that shifts the focus from the level of the story to that of textual poetics. The article argues that the metapoetic potential of the bast episode lies in the way its aesthetic configuration renders visible the constructedness of the narrated order, while simultaneously foregrounding a problem of perception that operates both within and beyond the diegesis.