Page - 154 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

154 Margit Dahm-Kruse and the ‘other’. Its depictions commonly display a dialectical tension of extremely positive, as well as extremely negative attributes. On the one hand, the Eastern space is often associated with cultural, technological, and economic superiority. In medieval novels, the Orient often functions as a kind of projection screen for the own longing for technical and cultural refine- ment, and as a draft of the marvellous. On the other hand, these texts also depict negative stereotypes by characterizing the non-Christian Oriental peoples and rulers as extraordinarily violent andcruel. This canbeseen in theexampleof theGrippianswith theirmergerofhuman partswithmonstrous attributes. They figure a strongoppositionof outstanding cultural refine- mentof theonepartandabsolutestrangenessof theother.Similarly, theAmiral,whois incredi- ble richandpowerfulandembodiesaperfectcourtly lifestyle, is,at thesametime,aremarkably misogynousdespot.52 The specific narrativepresentationof urban structures and theirwaterworks contributes to this ambiguous conception of the East: a well-known Christian picture inventory is used that evokes specific allusions.But thesepictures are transferred intoanegative context that contra- dicts their proper Christian semantic content. The notions of the Heavenly Jerusalem or the Garden of Eden are linked to heathen spheres and therefore they are somehowdoubtfulwhat becomesapparent at the latestwhen the storiesprogress:NeitherGrippianorBabylon, despite their seeminglyparadisiacalbeauty,becomeplacesof fulfilment,but turnout tobediametrical- ly opposed to the connectedChristian conceptions. Thepresentationofwater is a crucial featurewithin this poetical strategy. Thewaterworks with their appearance of the magical and the remarkably functionalized spring are essential parts of the ekphrastic descriptionsof the cityscape, thepalace, and thepalace garden. In first instance, the artfully controlled water is an epitome of cultural competence and refinement, and its highly aesthetic appeal is extensively presented in all of the given examples. But this aesthetic claim of validity is contradictory when combined with genuine Christian implica- tions.53 The artful, but therefore also artificialmastery over the element ofwater conflictswith its divinenature and spiritualmeaning. used to oppose the cultural self-image of theWest as a civilized, liberal, and enlightened sphere. Said’s assump- tions were strongly influenced byMichel Foucault’s discourse theory and by Foucault’s thesis that every nation and every culture needs the distinction from some (however defined) ‘other’ to define itself. In other words, the Orient is createdas a sort of cultural counter-model to sharpen theWestern self-definition. Said’s study is basedon theanalysisofabroadandheterogeneoustextcorpuscontaining literary texts,scientific, theologicalandphilosophi- calstudies,andnewspaperarticlesdatingfromthe18th to the20thcenturies,whilemedieval textswere–according to the focusoncolonialism–ofsmall importance.But inmedieval literature, thequestionofcultural self-construc- tion by defining amostly inferior ‘other’ is of great significance, too. In theMiddle Ages, images of the foreign Orient are evenmore based on literary constructions than inmodern times. Besides famous travel narratives like that of JeandeMandeville, the ‘HerzogErnst’with its largeOrient tale is one of themost discussed examples for apre-moderndebate onOrientalism. See, for example, the extensive chapter inKlein 2014, 233–301. 52 Of course, in 12th and 13th century literature such pejorative conceptions of the East and its non-Christian inhabitants are associatedwith thehistorical backgroundof theCrusades. In ‘HerzogErnst’, this context ismade explicit by the protagonist’s intention to join the Crusades.When the story progresses, Ernst actually reaches his original goal, Jerusalem, andproveshimself as a successfulmiles christi. The relevance of contemporary crusade- patterns for the ‘Herzog Ernst’ are focussed on by Goerlitz, who describes the ‘punktuelle[n] Partizipation des mittelhochdeutschenEposaneinemauchspäternochverbreitetenDiskursüberdieHeiden,der fürKreuzzugsauf- rufer, Kreuzzugsberichte sowie theologischeAbhandlungenkennzeichnend ist’ (Goerlitz 2009, 77). 53 The descriptions of thewaterworks in both novels share an ambivalent perspective on their artificial concep- tion. This can be seen in the repeated explanation that they are made with list. Even though the Middle High German term list does not have the present meaning of betrayal, but of mental and technical skills, it is not exclusively a positive term. It refers to a critical discourse on art, especially non-Christian art, where the self- authorization to be a creator and the technical mastery over nature remain suspicious. See also Schnyder, who points out that thenumerous ‘KünstlicheParadiese’ inmedievalnovels owna somewhatparadisiacal quality, but always remain inopposition to the trueChristianparadise: ‘Es sindKunst-Produkte,diedie imaginativeLeerstelle des christlich-religiösen Paradieses füllen, sich davon aber durch die ausgestellte Artifizialität, die oft auchma- gische (undpharmakologische)Mittelmit einschließt, absetzen’ (Schnyder 2010, 74).