One of the basic achievements of the modern period is an open future. This postulation governs research and occludes our view of pre-modern concepts of the future. This study of early prose novels written in the German language during the 15^th and 16^th centuries (Hug Schapler, Melusine, Hartliebs Alexander, Fortunatus) focuses on the conceptional change in narrative representations of notions of the future in early prose novels.

Susanne Knaeble, University of Bayreuth and TU Braunschweig, Germany.