In his »Parsifal«, Wolfram experiments with different concepts of femininity and masculinity and in so doing engages with the schemata of thought and argumentation found in the immediate literary tradition (Heinrich von Veldecke, Hartmann von Aue, Chrètien de Troyes). With reference to the Gawain books, the study shows how in act of narration Wolfram deconstructs the existing conventionalized literary models underlying the portrayal of gender relations and establishes a new form of inter-gender relationship in the framework of the courtly romance.