Call for Submissions
Deadline for title/abstract: 15 April 2022
Deadline for paper: 31 December 2022):
‘ Meter and Rhythm in Medieval Germanic Texts’
FILOLOGIA GERMANICA – GERMANIC PHILOLOGY 15 (2023)
Volume 15 will focus on the themes of meter and rhythm in medieval Germanic texts. As Augustine already pointed out in De musica (3.2.4), although meter and rhythm can be considered to be constituents of medieval verse (ergo omnis versus est rhythmus et metrum), they do not always coincide (non omnis rhythmus etiam metrum). This very concept, reassessed in Beda’s definitions of meter as ratio cum modulatione and rhythm as modulatio sine ratione, finds a possible correlation in the Norse literary figures of the skáld and of the þulr, which are assumed to be differently associated with meter and rhythm, the former for being the holder of the art of versification, the latter for being a performer of mostly catalogue-like texts endowed with a rhythmicity suitable for easy memorization. A stimulating debate has recently arisen on the value and function of the alliterative meter and rhythm, taking up and updating the principles of Sieversian Germanic metrics on the basis of linguistic, literary and codicological theories (Kristján Árnason 1991, Russom 1998 and 2017 2004, Fulk 1992 and 2004, Bredehoft 2005, Bögl 2006, Neidorf et al. [Eds.] 2016, Weiskott 2016, Cornelius 2017, Hench – Estes 2018), rekindling the attention on the relationship between lyrics and music (Everist – Kelly [eds. ] 2018) and extending our gaze to rhyming poetry.
We invite you to submit contributions that fit into this perspective, in order to propose new evidence and / or stimulate a theoretical, linguistic and critical reflection on the nature and function of meter and rhythm in medieval Germanic texts. The volume will focus on different textual genres within poetry and prose production.
Scholars willing to contribute to this volume (which has a planned publication date of Autumn 2023) should send the following information and material to Letizia Vezzosi (letizia.vezzosi@unifi.it), by April 15th 2022:
– name(s) of the author(s) and title of the essay;
– a short abstract in Italian, English or German that should not exceed 2,500 characters (spaces included), except bibliography.
Further details available here.
FMRSI 