The book examines the literary deployment of the figure of John the Evangelist in Middle High German texts, with particular reference to the question of imitatio. John is a major and multi-faceted saint, the biography and cult of whom have continuously raised questions about authorship, religious contemplation, spirituality, visions, and even sexuality, through most of the Christian period. The book identifies two parallel hagiographic uses of John in Middle High German texts: the devotional and the poetological. These uses are to a large extent contingent on genre: sermons and religious treat ... More

The book examines the literary deployment of the figure of John the Evangelist in Middle High German texts, with particular reference to the question of imitatio. John is a major and multi-faceted saint, the biography and cult of whom have continuously raised questions about authorship, religious contemplation, spirituality, visions, and even sexuality, through most of the Christian period. The book identifies two parallel hagiographic uses of John in Middle High German texts: the devotional and the poetological. These uses are to a large extent contingent on genre: sermons and religious treatises typically use John to direct and control the devotional practices and attitudes of the audience, while poetological uses of John become apparent in genres characterised by a self-conscious narrative or lyrical persona, for whom John, in his capacity as visionary author, constitutes not only a role-model, but also a rival. Ultimately, both of these uses relate to the fundamental question of imitatio, i.e., of the extent to which it is possible or appropriate for ordinary individuals to seek to re-create the extreme experiences and achievements of John. However, whereas devotional contexts focus on the relationship between John and the literary audience, the more poetologically oriented texts foreground the potentially imitative relationship between John and the author's persona.