perennare canendo. Die Vorstellung von der «Dichtung als Verewigung» in den carmina des Baudri von Bourgueil

Scholars agree that the poems of Baudri of Bourgueil are greatly indebted to the poetry of Ovid, the «tenerorum lusor amorum», and generally have the character of a literary game – in the neoteric sense of ludere – so that the author is by no means identical with the «I» of his poems, but slips into different roles. The fictional character of Baudri’s poetry has accordingly long been recognized. It is by recourse to ancient forms of thought and expression that Baudri’s work is able to address topics and adopt positions which conflict with the morals and expectations of his day. Thus, in his work we often encounter an idea which Ernst Robert Curtius, in his opus magnum «European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages», entitled «poetry as immortalization» – an idea that conflicts to a great extent with the Christian notion of eternal life. This article examines how Baudri in his carmina deals with the topos of immortalization through poetry and how much freedom he had to do so.

Keywords: Baudri von Bourgueil, Dichtung als Verewigung, Fiktionalität, Antikerezeption, christliches Mittelalter.