The volume presents the papers delivered to an international conference on late medieval carnival plays (Blaubeuren 2007). Representatives from German, French and Dutch Studies, together with theatre and cultural historians examine carnival plays from the following perspectives: play topics and municipal politics, performance and reception, relations with sacred drama, with literary and local traditions and customs, and in addition, issues around editing and commentary, together with comparative literary aspects.

The AProse LancelotA still represents a major challenge for research on medieval literature. The Middle High German romance is a translation of an Old French original that may have been transmitted via a Dutch interim version. Accordingly, the romance has to be read in the context of French, Dutch, and German literary history. In Germany the reception of the ALancelot en proseA related to its modern prose form, while in the Netherlands it was also translated/reworked as a romance in verse. Given all this, the study of the work can only be properly undertaken on an interdisciplinary basis. This volume contains the contributions to the Lancelot conference in TA1/4bingen in September 2004. Specialists in German Studies, Romance Studies, and Dutch Studies examine the work both from literary and a language-historical perspectives. The articles concentrate on the following subjects: (1) translation practice and prose style, (2) narrative strategies and the constitution of meaning, (3) transmission and impact.