Wolfram's "Willehalm". Fifteen Essays. Edited by Martin H. Jones and Timothy Mc- Farland. Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. Rochester, N.Y., and Suffolk: Camden House, 2002. Pp. xxii +344; 6 illustrations. $79.

This collection of essays makes an important contribution to the ongoing research on Wolfram's Willehalm by introducing the work to a broader English-speaking scholarly community. As a rare example of the adoption of the French chanson de geste tradition in German vernacular literature of the thirteenth century, Willehalmhas until now not received the scholarly attention it deserves. The majority of essays in the volume investigate Willehalm by using recent theoretical paradigms, exploring its intertextual poetics, and investigating the impact of gender theory and Bachtin's concept of dialogicity on the construction of the German text. These attempts are accompanied by articles that position the epic within its historical context and that of its French source. Other contributors focus on certain aspects of Wolfram's specific mode of narration as well as the ideological and theological contents of the epic.

Monika Schausten
University of Illinois at Chicago