»Old Poet«, New Readings: Recent Work on Hans Sachs and Perspectives for Future Research
Stimulated by the flourishing of research on literature and culture of the early modern period in recent decades across the disciplines, interest in the body of literary works by the Nuremberg author Hans Sachs (1494–1576) is also on the rise again. This paper offers a report on scholarship devoted to his wide-ranging creative output and published between the re-emergence of Sachs studies in the mid-1970s up until the present day. Beginning with a retrospective that is primarily thematic in structure, it then turns to a discussion (in terms both of methodology and of content) of the focus and findings of studies to date, including the consideration of continuing gaps and desiderata. The latter are in the main related to textual problems, but also touch on many other aspects (literary, historical etc.) yet to be properly examined. There follows, finally, a delineation, based on the status quo as presented, of four highly relevant fields of study: the report thus provides a thematic and methodological framework of potential use for future research.