Zur sozialen Logik der Tugendprobe

In a broad overview, this article examines the virtue test scenarios (›Tugendproben‹) in Arthurian romances and short narratives of the 13th and 14th centuries as well as in late medieval chivalric romance and Shrovetide plays. While literary research has mainly focused on didactic and comic moments of only two texts so far, the article aims at an underlying social structure formed by public control, rank representation, and concern for the cohesion of Arthurian society. This constellation, I argue, reflects the problem of reconciling two contradictory principles of courtly socialization: agonal competition and an assertion of virtual equality.