Verheven vorm. Middelnederlands proza tot circa 1300

Samenvatting

This article presents an overview of the surviving Dutch prose literature from the ninth century until the end of the thirteenth century. In this period, prose was an exceptional form, since most medieval Dutch literature was written in rhymed verse. By studying both religious and secular prose literature, this article aims to retrieve the general factors that governed the use of prose, such as the influence of genre, literary tradition and function. Furthermore, it is argued that the use of prose was determined by regionally bounded literary poetics in the Low Countries.