Abstract
This article examines two short narratives by Hans Sachs, ‘Of the Lost Talking Gulden’ (1553) and ‘The Poor Complaining Horse Hide’ (1557), as early ‘it-narratives’ that feature material things as their narrators, focalisers and protagonists: a gulden coin, and a horse hide that is then made into a shoe respectively. The small size of these things and their interaction with humans here works not to make them accessible for human handling, but allows them to provide a macro- and a micro-perspective on human society as an alternative to the normal anthropocentric view of sensory perceptions.
Translated title of the contribution | Suffering leather and complaining coins: The sensory perceptions of small things in Hans Sachs' "The Poor Complaining Horsehide (1557) and "Of the Lost Talking Gulden" (1553) |
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Original language | German |
Pages (from-to) | 382–396 |
Journal | Das Mittelalter |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 12 Nov 2020 |
Keywords
- Hans Sachs
- Materiality
- Agency
- Thing biography
- New materialism