¿Declinación y caída de la novela corta?

Avatares de un género en la narrativa alemana moderna

Abstract

In the discussion of the Benjaminian theses on the death of the narrator, has generally been left aside the evidence that the German essayist did not devote his attention to popular literature (Volksliteratur), but to authors (Leskov, Keller, Hebel, Conrad) who, in his opinion, rework traditional narrative art ”“anonymous and collective”“. The careful consideration of the work of these authors could show that, in them, the crisis of the narrative that Benjamin associates with literature after the Great War is already evident. A review of Benjamin's proposals would require a study of the avatars of the short novel (Novelle), a genre to which most of the models invoked by Benjamin as prototypes of traditional narration belong, and to which Benjamin does not grant specific attention . Our proposal is to examine the hypothesis (suggested by Kracauer) about a crisis and transfiguration of the Novelle, and test it from an analysis of canonical German narratives.