Zeit der Prosa

Overview & Synopsis

How have time and prose been interrelated since 1750? And do they become productive in literary theory as concepts that define one another more precisely in poetological and epistemological terms? Michael Gampers’ study on the theory and history of prose describes key aspects of a temporal aesthetics of free-form language from the 18th century to the present day. Gamper regards prose as a literary category independent of its definition by rules of genre or narrative techniques. Rather, he understands it as a variable form of communication and art, characterised by idiosyncratic and dynamic form-building through prosodic and grammatical structuring. Time emerges here as an aesthetic dimension of prose in its dual structure of succession and recursion. The study is divided into five chapters on rhythm, description, intrinsic temporality, experimentation and everyday life, drawing on texts by, among others, Klopstock, Herder, Flaubert, Stifter, Valéry, Stein, Mayröcker, Handke and Lotz.