ABSTRACT One of the dramatic, if not traumatic, experiences in life has always been enslavement and imprisonment, that is, the loss of personal freedom, and this for many different reasons. Curiously, medieval literature does not seem to address this topic extensively, at least at first sight, and research has paid rather little attention to this issue. A close analysis, however, demonstrates quickly that the theme of imprisonment was of significant concern throughout the Middle Ages, probably because the loss of individual freedom happened more often than not and could also affect members of the nobility. There were many cases of imprisonment as a result of criminal activities, sometimes also committed by knights or noble ladies. Worst, however, was the experience of those who were taken as captives after a battle and then were enslaved. This article provides a first framework for the study of this large topic in pre-modern literature and so-called ego-documents and then focuses on a most dramatic example, the report by the long-term slave Johannes Schiltberger.

中文翻译：

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中世纪文学中的监禁主题。重点是约翰·席尔特伯格 (Johann Schiltberger) 关于他在东方 30 年被奴役的描述

摘要 生活中最戏剧化的经历之一，即使不是创伤性的，也是奴役和监禁，即个人自由的丧失，这有很多不同的原因。奇怪的是，中世纪文学似乎并没有广泛地讨论这个话题，至少乍一看是这样，而且研究很少关注这个问题。然而，仔细分析很快就表明，监禁的主题在整个中世纪都备受关注，这可能是因为个人自由的丧失经常发生，而且还会影响贵族成员。由于犯罪活动而被监禁的案例很多，有时也由骑士或贵妇犯下。然而，最糟糕的是那些在战斗后被俘虏然后被奴役的人的经历。