Early New High German literature (original) (raw)

Early New High German literature refers to literature written in German between the middle of the 14th century and the middle of the 17th. The term Early Modern German literature is also used to cover all or part of the same period. The fundamental development from Middle High German literature was the giving up of a small range of literary subjects which had been of vital interest to a chivalrous society eclectic in its tastes, and the adoption of a wider, more complex, range of subjects interesting a wider public which was not chivalrous but citizen.