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.