The Image of East Central Europe in Medieval European Literature

Abstract

This chapter addresses stereotypes by which the local population of medieval East Central Europe was described in the medieval West and their image reshaped over centuries by diverse Western influences, especially highlighting perceptions of the Slavs. The diversity of examples illustrates that there was no constant image of the region in Western literature. Various images and narrative functions wandered from one text and genre to another, which shows the complicated structure of intertextuality in medieval literature. This system was not static. After a long period when the lack of information about the region was compensated for by stereotypes and distinct ways of “orientalizing” by association, a growing number of personal encounters helped Western writers develop a more diversified vision of the region. Although these more nuanced representations still operate with stereotypes, by the late Middle Ages Western literature seems to have emancipated East Central Europe, which was increasingly portrayed as a land of highly mobile outstanding warriors and attractive princesses who played greater roles in fictitious political events, not unlike Eastern Europe’s intensifying significance in the affairs of Western kingdoms.