With its groundings in social psychology and linguistics, this study sets out (a) to provide a theoretical characterization of national stereotypes as a topic in literary studies, (b) to cast light on the connections between national stereotypes and the concept of national character from an historical perspective, and (c) to examine examples from 16th to 19th century German and French literature with a view to identifying the functions of national topoi in literature and the way they differ according to text genre and discursive context.