Leidendes Leder und klagende Münze : Die Sinne der kleinen Dinge in Hans Sachs’ "Die ellend klagent roßhaut" (1557) und "Von dem verlornen redenten gülden" (1553)

Abstract

This article examines two short narratives by Hans Sachs, ‘Of the Lost Talking Gulden’ (1553) and ‘The Poor Complaining Horse Hide’ (1557), as early ‘it-narratives’ that feature material things as their narrators, focalisers and protagonists: a gulden coin, and a horse hide that is then made into a shoe respectively. The small size of these things and their interaction with humans here works not to make them accessible for human handling, but allows them to provide a macro- and a micro-perspective on human society as an alternative to the normal anthropocentric view of sensory perceptions.