Annegret Oehme

University of Washington, Germanics, Faculty Member

Duke University, Germanic Languages and Literature, Graduate Student

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Annegret Oehme is an associate professor in the Department of Germanics at University of Washington, Seattle. She received a PhD from Duke and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after completing a dissertation in the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies. She received her B.A. in Jewish Studies and her M.A. in Medieval and Early Modern German Literature and Language from Freie Universität in Berlin. During her time in Berlin, Annegret transliterated and edited Middle Dutch sermon tracts as a research assistant for Dr. Norbert Winkler and worked as teaching assistant for Middle High German and medieval literature. Her research interests include medieval and early modern German and Yiddish literature and cultural transfers within a German-Jewish context. For her dissertation project she researched the adaptations and transformations of "Wigalois", a text that describes the adventures of an Arthurian knight, across different languages (Yiddish and German) as well as across different media (manuscripts, prints, wall paintings, comics) from the 13th to the 21st centuries.
For more information see: www.annegretoehme.com
Supervisors: Dissertation Advisor: Ruth von Bernuth (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Kansas State University

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UNL - New University of Lisbon

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Books by Annegret Oehme

Jewish Medieval and Early Modern Romance

by Annegret Oehme and Caroline Gruenbaum

ARC Humanities Press, 2023

Edited Volume

The Knight Without Boundaries: Yiddish and German Arthurian Wigalois Adaptations

"This volume explores a core medieval myth, the tale of an Arthurian knight called Wigalois, and ... more "This volume explores a core medieval myth, the tale of an Arthurian knight called Wigalois, and the ways it connects the Yiddish-speaking Jews and the German-speaking non-Jews of the Holy Roman Empire. The German Wigalois / Viduvilt adaptations grow from a multistage process: a German text adapted into Yiddish adapted into German, creating adaptations actively shaped by a minority culture within a majority culture. The Knight without Boundaries examines five key moments in the Wigalois / Viduvilt tradition that highlight transitions between narratological and meta-narratological patterns and audiences of different religious-cultural or lingual background"

"He should have listened to his wife!": the Construction of Women's Roles in German and Yiddish Pre-modern 'Wigalois' Adaptations

This publication uncovers two previously dismissed pre-modern adaptations of the Middle High Germ... more This publication uncovers two previously dismissed pre-modern adaptations of the Middle High German Wigalois (1215) by exploring their different approaches to female agency in comparison with the original Wigalois, the Yiddish Viduvilt (14th ct.) and the German Wigoleis (15th ct.). Traditionally, scholarship often concentrated on the Yiddish text presenting female figures as behaving in a "Jewish manner" or embodying famous Jewish mythical figures such as Lilith (see Achim Jaeger / Robert G. Warnock). Rather than trying to argue for or against a figure's "Jewishness," I evaluate these interpretations from the perspective of Arthurian Literature by showing that the construction of female agency is at the center of all three adaptations of this important chapter of German-Jewish literature and culture.

Papers by Annegret Oehme

Introduction: The plurality of Premodern German studies

The German Quarterly

What is German studies for a historical period in which Germany did not exist? This introduction ... more What is German studies for a historical period in which Germany did not exist? This introduction to the special issue on Premodern German Studies advocates for a more inclusive definition of German and a more diverse practice of German studies. Between 800 and 1800, Central Europe was marked by shifting political boundaries, cultural-religious plurality, linguistic transformations, imperial expansions and contractions, and missionary colonization with its accompanying forms of violence. The contributions in this volume challenge two related preconceptions: that relevant material from majority German-speaking regions is exclusively in German; and that the regions from which material relevant for German studies originates are solely those where German was or is widely spoken. This issue also seeks to show how premodern studies can support the important work of scholar activists by examining the plurality of time periods, regions, cultures, languages, literatures, and identities encompassed by the expansive field of premodern German studies.

Viduvilt

Routledge eBooks, May 27, 2022

Tu felix Camelot nube! Heiratspolitik und Familienbande im jiddischen Artusroman

PaRDeS, Dec 8, 2020

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Richard Matthew Pollard (Ed.): Imagining the Medieval Afterlife

Zeitschrift für interkulturelle Germanistik, 2021

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Adapting Arthur: The Transformations and Adaptations of Wirnt von Grafenberg's Wigalois

The stories of King Arthur and his noble knights have fascinated audiences for many centuries and... more The stories of King Arthur and his noble knights have fascinated audiences for many centuries and continue to being retold and fashioned to attract modern audiences. Amongst these stories is the tale of Wigalois, the son of the reputable Gawain. This dissertation traces the story of Wigalois across different languages, cultures, and media in order to show how this is a shared German-Yiddish narrative. Furthermore, this dissertations challenges traditional understanding of adaptation within a diachronic and teleological framework by uncovering dialogical and dynamic processes inherent in this narrative tradition. Using the theoretical framework of a combined Adaptation Studies and Medieval Literature Studies' notions of unstable texts my argumentation focuses on eight specific examples: Wirnt von Grafenberg's Wigalois (1st half 13th ct.), Italian murals from the fourteenth century, Wigoleis von dem Rade (1483/93), Viduvilt (Yiddish, 16th ct.), Johann Christoph Wagenseil's...

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»Wellichs du tu Ot, das wirt dich reuen.« Strategien der Wissensvermittlung in Albrechts von Eyb ›Ehebüchlein‹

Wissen und Geltung, 2019

The Knight without Boundaries: Yiddish and German Arthurian Wigalois Adaptations

&quot;This volume explores a core medieval myth, the tale of an Arthurian knight called Wigal... more &quot;This volume explores a core medieval myth, the tale of an Arthurian knight called Wigalois, and the ways it connects the Yiddish-speaking Jews and the German-speaking non-Jews of the Holy Roman Empire. The German Wigalois / Viduvilt adaptations grow from a multistage process: a German text adapted into Yiddish adapted into German, creating adaptations actively shaped by a minority culture within a majority culture. The Knight without Boundaries examines five key moments in the Wigalois / Viduvilt tradition that highlight transitions between narratological and meta-narratological patterns and audiences of different religious-cultural or lingual background&quot;

From Camelot to China, or, 'A History or Moral Tale about a Young Sir Gabein's Marvelous Adventures Illustrating Divine Providence

Arthuriana, 2020

“He should have listened to his wife!”

“He should have listened to his wife!”, 2019

A Franconian Knight at King Arthur's Court: Regional Identity and Medieval Iconography inDie phantastischen Abenteuer des Glücksritters Wigalois(2011)

The German Quarterly, 2019

the myth of king arthur stands out in literary history as having prompted one of the most product... more the myth of king arthur stands out in literary history as having prompted one of the most productive adaptation traditions, constantly inspiring new art. stories about the legendary king and his valiant knights of the round table have been told from the early Middle ages onward in many cultures and languages, from Japanese to Hebrew, from english to German. the vast scholarship on this topic is borne out not only by the more than 1400 articles in the Mla international Bibliography database on arthurian romance, but also by the existence and popularity of the international arthurian society with its own journal, begun in 1979. the continued creation of feature films in wide release, whether box office busts or blockbusters, such as the recent King Arthur: legend of the Sword (dir. Guy richie, 2017) and The Kid who would be King (dir. Joe Cornish, 2019) demonstrate the unbrokenness of this fascination. at the beginning of this tradition stands the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095-c. 1155) who presented his audience with the first known extensive written narrative about king arthur and his knights in his historia Regum Britanniae (1136). following Monmouth, arthurian narratives were reworked repeatedly for centuries, integrating contemporaneous concepts and presenting the stories of king arthur to different audiences. in the twelfth century, the french poet Chrétien de troyes (c. 1130c. 1180/90) offered literary history's most significant reshaping of the stories. it is in his tales that one first finds a recurring theme: after solving a problem and/or fulfilling a certain task and finding a love partner, the hero brings stability to the court. following Chrétien de troyes's success, Middle-High German adaptations of arthurian material soon emerged, including stories by Hartmann von aue, Wolfram von eschenbach, and Wirnt von Grafenberg. the German tradition is comprehensively explored in Volker Mertens's Der deutsche Artusroman (1998), and the anthology The Arthur of the Germans (2011) edited by William H. Jackson and silvia ranawake. in the following pages, i analyze the mechanisms with which the creators of a German graphic novel, inspired by the Middle High German (MHG) poet Wirnt von Grafenberg (dates unknown, thirteenth century), explore the pop-cul

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Schweigen ist Silber, Reden ist Gold. Über die Bedeutung von Reflexion und Kommunikation in der jiddischen Magelone-Adaption

Aschkenas, 2015

This paper explores the role of the Yiddish

Es Wil Mein Namèn Nirgèz Nenèn

Hybridität und Spiel, 2012

PaRDeS : Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies in Germany = Jewish Families and Kinship in the Early Modern and Modern Eras

The Jewish family has been the subject of much admiration and analysis, criticism and myth-making... more The Jewish family has been the subject of much admiration and analysis, criticism and myth-making, not just but especially in modern times. As a field of inquiry, its place is at the intersection – or in the shadow – of the great topics in Jewish Studies and its contributing disciplines. Among them are the modernization and privatization of Judaism and Jewish life; integration and distinctiveness of Jews as individuals and as a group; gender roles and education. These and related questions have been the focus of modern Jewish family research, which took shape as a discipline in the 1910s. This issue of PaRDeS traces the origins of academic Jewish family research and takes stock of its development over a century, with its ruptures that have added to the importance of familial roots and continuities. A special section retrieves the founder of the field, Arthur Czellitzer (1871–1943), his biography and work from oblivion and places him in the context of early 20th-century science and J...

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“A Franconian Knight at King Arthur's Court: Regional Identity and Medieval Iconography in Die Phantastischen Abenteuer Des Glücksritters Wigalois (2011)."

The German Quarterly , 2019

“Schweigen ist Silber, Reden ist Gold. Über die Bedeutung von Reflexion und Kommunikation in der jiddischen Magelone Adaptation”

This paper explores the role of the Yiddish Magelene adaptation within the European narrative tr... more This paper explores the role of the Yiddish Magelene adaptation within the European narrative tradition. To uncover seemingly minor changes and expose the original agenda of this adaptation, this paper offers a close reading of the text through the lens of Spinoza’s Ethics suggesting that the text exhibits a more individualized worldview by offering an insight into the internal processes of the protagonists. This paper seeks to track these changes in the text’s construction of subjectivity with regard to affects and they influence activity and passivity of the characters.
(German version of prior Article)

“‘Wellichs du tust, das wirt dich reuen.’ Strategien der Wissensvermittlung in Albrechts von Eyb Ehebüchlein“

In diesem Aufsatz werden die Methoden der Wissensvermittlung in einer frühneuzeitlichen Ehelehre... more In diesem Aufsatz werden die Methoden der Wissensvermittlung in einer frühneuzeitlichen Ehelehre, Albrechts von Eyb ‚Ehebüchlein’ untersucht. Dabei werden gezielt etablierte Theorien in Frage gestellt und gezeigt, wie Albrecht im Rahmen seines äußerst hybriden Florilegiums mittels verschiedener textinterner und paratextueller Strategien immer wieder versucht, das subversive Potential der einzelnen einbezogenen Texte zu reduzieren und zu ‚bändigen’. Auf struktureller Ebene vereint der Text Florilegium, Novellenbearbeitung und didaktische Abhandlung mit Versatzstücken aus theologischen und medizinischen Diskursen. Im Rahmen der unterschiedlichen Formen der Wissensvermittlung übernimmt Albrechts Sprecher-Ich jeweils unterschiedliche Funktionen und ist so beispielsweise Kompilator und Kommentator im Florilegiumsteil, Prediger im Schöpfungsteil oder Gastgeber eines performativ angelegten Hochzeitsmahles im dritten Teil des Buches. Als Analyseintrumentarium für die konkrete Untersuchung des Textes dienen sowohl Gérard Genettes Paratextmodell als auch ein modifiziertes Konzept Bachtinscher Dialogizität und Polyphonie. Doch genau wie sich das ‚Ehebüchlein’ kohärenten Kategorien und Analysen entzieht, können auch die Theoriekonzepte, wie Dialogizität und Polyphonie, immer nur partiell und in Umformung fruchtbar gemacht werden. Daher hat der Aufsatz zum Ziel diese Brüchigkeit und Heterogenität samt konkreter Strategien Albrechts, diese einzudämmen, sichtbar zu machen.

Spinoza in Love. Reflections, Affect, and Subjectivity in the Yiddish Magelene Adaptation.

This paper explores the role of the Yiddish Magelene adaptation within the European narrative tra... more This paper explores the role of the Yiddish Magelene adaptation within the European narrative tradition. To uncover seemingly minor changes and expose the original agenda of this adaptation, this paper offers a close reading of the text through the lens of Spinoza’s Ethics suggesting that the text exhibits a more individualized worldview by offering an insight into the internal processes of the protagonists. This paper seeks to track these changes in the text’s construction of subjectivity with regard to affects and they influence activity and passivity of the characters.