Animal symbolism and its role in creating comic effect in the satires of medieval Germany

This study aims to determine the role of animal symbolism in producing comic effect in the satires of medieval Germany. The following satires were taken for this study: “The ship of fools” (“Das narren schyff“ 15th century) by Sebastian Brant, “A deceived husband” (“Der verkêrte wirt“ 13th century) by Herrand von Wildonie and “Priest Amis” (“Der pfaffe Ameis“ 13th century) by Der Stricker. The analysis allows to note that in these pieces the images of the animals are a significant element of the plot and composition structure. The medieval German authors most frequently use the images of the “hund“ (dog), “esel“ (donkey), “han“ (rooster), “vishe“ (fish) and “affe“ (monkey). People of Middle Ages tended to assume that animals were inferior to people, could be thought to occasionally even have relationships with the Devil, therefore, animal symbolism in poetics helped to create allegory and picture people’s sins. Lexemes that denote animals in the analyzed satires contain a wide range of associations which reflects not only traditions of folk culture, but also those of church and religion. It is explained by the fact that the worldview of a medeival person was based on the combination of Christianity and folk culture. It is no accident that the lexemes that name the majority of the animals represented in this study, acquired a figurative (metaphorical) and symbolic meanings on top of their literal meaning. The results of the lexical and stylistic analysis showed that there are two main ways of creating comic effect by using animal symbolism in the works of the medieval German authors. Lexemes that denote animals can be used as components of stylistic devices (comparison, playing upon a phraseological unit) which is a complementary tool and emphasizes the comic effect created on the level of the plot. At the same time, lexemes denoting animals can be used as components of composition (dramatic irony). In this instance the animal image takes part in creating the comic effect within the whole text.