The Schwank is a derbcomic stage, which resembles the Posse. Schwänke are often popular stories or plays, which tell of a comic situation from the national life. In swans usually two figures meet, one of the others being actual or even seemingly superior. Such pairings arise, for example, between a clever student and a simple peasant or master and a servant. The joke is usually written in prose.
term
The term is derived from the middle-high German noun swanc, which can be translated by beat, chop, or swinging movement and funny incursion. The last-mentioned meaning also points out what is at stake here: a funny idea [shown in a comic situation].
Note: In the following, we would like to examine the essential characteristics of the swank, also showing how the whole can be distinguished from other forms. Afterwards the origins and the development are explained, whereby selected examples and representatives are named.
Characteristics of the tail
The essential features of the tail
The sway is usually a short narrative, which tells of a funny situation or encounter. Either it is listed or read. If he is performed, he resembles the Posse.
Tits are generally designed to be entertaining. This means that the surprising, funny and pointen end is reached quickly and without detours.
The fluctuation is characterized by a coarse language and is often characterized by a colloquial language. Often jokes or obscene expressions occur. Nevertheless, the jubilee is not as vulgar and bold as the Zote.
Schwänke live by character and situation comics. This is often underlined by an untypical encounter, where two figures often meet, one of which is superior to the other. Completely equal, whether due to a power relationship, the financial situation or other standards of the comparison.
In the Urtypus of the Schwanz, it is often the case that one figure (the inferior) is deceived by another (the superior). For example, a simple man is hewn over the ear. Later, however, there were also tales where the scheme changed; Suddenly, the first deceived person afterwards outwits the deceiver himself.
The Komik des Schwanken rarely had an intellectual background. Often, we are confronted with situation comics. The situation is different, for example, in the anecdote, even if it is similar to the jubilee. This is not characterized above all by situational comics.
The Schwank experienced his wedding in the Late Middle Ages and was also popular in the Baroque. In Baroque, he formed a kind of antipode to the spiritual or the longing for the hereafter, which was characteristic of this epoch (see Literaturepochen).
Note: Schwänke were very rarely released individually, but in Schwansammlungen. Examples are Till Eulenspiegel, the Lalenbuch (Schildbürger), the cycle of the priest Amis.
Authors, as well as Schwanzammlungen and Schwankromane
The knitter (first half of the 13th century)
The monk Amis (around 1240)
Hans Grüninger (1455 – 1532)
as editor: A short-lived reading by Dyl Ulenspiegel, born to the country at Brunsswick, as he has lived his life (~ Till Eulenspiegel, c. 1500)
Hans Sachs (1494-1576)
The Holy Land (1530)
St. Peter with the Geiss (1555)
Johann Friedrich of Schönberg
presumably: The Lalenbuch. Marvelous, adventurous, unheard-of and untold stories and acts of the Lalen to Laleburg (Die Schildbürger, 1597)
Shape and structure of the tail
The wedding of the Schwans was in the Middle Ages. Here you will find the most and most varied examples of the texts. Initially, however, Schwänke were not yet told in prose, but used a construction in verse form. The shape of the tail will be explained below.
In the Late Middle Ages (~ 1250 – 1500), the fluctuation mostly still used the verse form. Characteristical verses were four-bar verses. A staple consists of one uplift and one or two downsets (see the measurement). But whether as verse or in prose, the construction is in many cases the following:
Typical construction of a tail
Promythion (introduction)
Narrative (actual action)
Epimythion (afterword, often instructive, moralizing)
Note: In some Schwantammammlungen, there is a promythion, which applies to all subsequent texts, which often have their own promythies. Epimythion, however, is always reserved for the end of the work. In structure, the Schwank thus basically resembles the fable.
Figures in socks
There is no fixed figure constellation in the Schwank. However, there are certain combinations and figure types that meet us in many tails and thus belong to the figurative repertoire. But it is always a matter of the conflict between two or more persons (groups).
Numerous tales are located in the areas of marriage and sexuality. There are three possibilities of the setting: ehestreit, adulteration or the advertising of a woman by external figures. The typical characters would be husband, wife, lover and skipper. Nevertheless, many subjects have been treated in tuxedos, which is why the figure constellation is not defined.
It is important that two persons or groups of persons are involved, who are strongly opposed, with one who seems to be superior to the other and who is proverbial. Configurable combinations are clerics and laity, teachers and pupils, lord and servant, clever student, and a simple peasant, seducer and naive.
Furthermore, it is not defined which character will ultimately be the victor of the encounter. There are quite a few examples showing that the figure, which is unsocial or negative, ends up being the victor. The decisive point is rather that the victor has won his victory through a particularly elaborate and clever trick.
Examples of the fluctuation
In the following, we would like to present you with selected examples in which the essential characteristics and the structure of the texts can be reproduced as an example. The examples are both located around Till Eulenspiegel and taken from the well-known Schwanken collection.
Short overview: The most important thing about Schwank at a glance
Der Schwank is an epic text and meets us as a short, pointed narrative or as a stage play, which is mainly based on situational and character comics. He is related to the fool, the fool, the French fable, the farce, or even the burlesque.
It does not serve as a mockery like the comedy, is not so much a matter of serenity as the play of the game, does not have the rude humor of a posse, but offers rather light humor and is thus a form of harmless serenity and unpretentious cheerfulness.
The wedding of the Schwans was the Middle Ages. Here, too, there are forms which are not yet written in prose but consist of verses. Such a variation could well comprise over 1000 lines.
In the thirteenth century, the genre became a self-contained epic small-scale form, and it increasingly aroused the teaching character and became more and more an expression of the new bourgeois self-consciousness.