Kultur- und Wertevermittlung über ein ‚Deutsches Mittelater‘ für die russische Emigration. Arthur Luthers Anthologie Повѣсти, разсказы, легенды и шутки нѣмецкаго средневѣковья (1922)

Abstract

Cultural Transfers and Transfers of Values via ‘German Middle Ages’ for the Russian Emigration. Arthur Luther’s Anthology Повѣсти, разсказы, легенды и шутки нѣмецкаго средневѣковья (1922) Arthur Luther’s (1876‒1955; translator, publicist, cultural mediator and librarian) anthology Pověsti, razskazy, legendy i šutki německago srednevěkovʹâ published 1922 at Grani in Berlin, has hardly been recognized by researchers until today. This paper’s aim is to reveal the function and intention of Luther’s edition as a proposition of (cultural) integration for his intended audience of Russian emigrants in Germany. Based on theories of Reinhard Wenskus on the construction of collective identities as well as Jurij Lotman’s semiosphere theory and cultural transfer research, this anthology can be seen as an off er to convey and (if applicable) amplify values and norms to an audience already rudimentarily familiar with them. The ten medieval texts translated by Luther range from Hartmann’s Armer Heinrich to the legend of Creszentia from the Kaiserchronik to a variety of Mæren, such as Herrand’s von Wildonie Treue Gattin and Konrad’s von Würzburg Herzmære. All those texts translated and edited by Luther are exclusively epic poetry or independent excerpts from chronicles, all dating from the period between 1150 and 1300, while the three-volume edition of Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen’s Gesammtabenteuer (1850) served as its pre-text. It can be assumed that Luther aimed for a didactic benefi t by means of these works: Central social and religious systems of values and norms are presented in a literary form that is interesting due to its antiquity, but at the same time does not seem fundamentally alien to a foreign cultural audience, who are thus to be familiarised with the historical dimensions of their exile cultural area.