Theorie der Prosa
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Edited by:
Ralf Simon
This volume develops its theory of prose out of the concept of the basal self-referentiality of the poetic text. Its object of study is a corpus of sophisticated prose texts that are both extensive and complex, and which pursue a wild, dense semiosis (Bottom's Dream, Schattenfroh, Finnegan’s Wake, etc.). The question of their aesthetic characteristics leads to reflections on the basic concepts of literary studies.
Under the name satura, this volume examines a "monstrous" text tradition characterized by mixed forms and intertextual hypertrophy. In studies on authors like Lucilius, Varro, Horace, Petronius, Hamann, and Jean Paul, Sina Dell’Anno takes a new perspective on this tradition by focusing her attention on the notorious formlessness of satirical texts as the engine of her autophilological poetics.
This book develops a theory of wild translation. It describes literary strategies that not only serve to translate content but also produce new poetic texts out of foreign linguistic material. Analyses of Johann Fischart’s Geschichtklitterung (1575) and Arno Schmidt’s Zettel’s Traum (1970) examine the function and aesthetic implications of this technique and how it is poetologically negotiated in the texts themselves.
Oswald Egger’s extensive oeuvre has received only little reception in the field of literary studies. This might be due to the fact that, on account of their complex movements of language, these texts pose the question of whether and how they can be interpreted at all. This volume faces up to this interpretative task with close readings – word for word, paying special attention to the relationship between poetry and prose.
A theory of prose does not exist yet. This volume aims to free prose from its invisibility as a medium for forms or genres devoid of characteristics. It redefines prose as a structure that works in latency, as a mysterious movement, but above all as poetic self-reference. These contributions combine this interest with in-depth exegeses on texts by Joyce, Mayröcker, Wühr, Lentz, and others.
In Occidental poetry, the lyric poem has long been considered the paradigm of condensed verse – the pinnacle of poetic genres. This is increasingly being challenged by advanced prose, where myriad self-references have given rise to a concept of aesthetic density that pushes back against form. This volume investigates whether verse or prose is denser, more intense, more poetic, more advanced.
