From Social History to the Poetics of the Visual:
Philology of the Middle Ages as Cultural History

Ursula Peters, University of Cologne

"First there was only a linguistic turn, then successively and simultaneously concepts such as a practical, experimental, discursive, relativistic representational, body, pictorial and cultural turn have become common practice." This dictum by the historian of sciences Michael Hagner about the rapid change in theoretical concepts and methodological instruments and the terminological arsenal that goes along with it in scholarly disciplines is also valid for medievalist philology. This discipline has been increasingly involved in international scholarly debates and participates—particularly under the label of cultural studies—in the most recent theoretical developments.