Die Männlichkeit des Romans

This study examines the theory of the novel and the conceptualisation of gender as having been inextricably intertwined since the inception of the former and the rise of modernity. Authors of these theories sought to address not only the relatively young genre of the novel, but also the category of masculinity: theories of the novel became theories of gender. Through an analysis of relevant theories of the novel, from Huet and Blanckenburg via F. Schlegel and Hegel to Vischer and Lukács, this study traces the efforts made in the texts to mutually stabilise masculinity and the novel. This attempt at mutual stability opens points of rupture, revealing the vulnerable achievements of masculinity and the novel.

Luiz Costa Lima e a teoria do romance (Retorno à Poética) / Luiz Costa Lima and the Theory of the Novel (Return to Poetics)

Resumo: Neste artigo, analisamos criticamente o tratamento reservado à teoria do romance na obra do maior nome da teoria da literatura no Brasil, Luiz Costa Lima, mais especificamente a relação por ele estabelecida entre a “afirmação do romance” e o “controle do imaginário”, um tópico central de sua obra desde a década de 1980. Questionando a própria noção de “controle” aí em jogo, desembocamos num retorno à Poética como teoria dos gêneros do discurso, aqui estimulado pelo diálogo possível entre Mikhail Bakhtin e Hans Blumenberg, que Luiz Costa Lima encoraja em sua abordagem da teoria do romance.Palavras-chave: Luiz Costa Lima; teoria do romance; gêneros do discurso; poética.Abstract: In this article, we critically analyse the treatment to the theory of the novel in the work of the greatest name of literary theory in Brazil, Luiz Costa Lima, more specifically the relation between the “affirmation of the novel” and the “control of the imaginary”, a central topic of his work since the 1980s. Questioning this notion of “control” itself, we reach to a return to Poetics as a theory of genres of discourse, here stimulated by the possible dialogue between Mikhail Bakhtin e Hans Blumenberg, which is encouraged by Luiz Costa Lima in his approach to the theory of the novel.Keywords: Luiz Costa Lima; theory of the novel; genres of discourse; poetics.

‘Jij zult nooit een slachtoffer blijven [...], want jij bent een held’ : De plaats van de Ander in Dertig dagen (2015) van Annelies Verbeke

Who is allowed to occupy which space in a multicultural society? Whose worlds and perspectives are represented in the fictional space? In this article we investigate the answers to these questions by means of a narratological analysis, informed by insights from postcolonial and cultural theory, of the novel Dertig dagen (2015) by Annelies Verbeke. While Saskia Pieterse (2014) suggests that in many recent novels ‘the Other’ is often a flat character and merely the embodiment of the theme of multiculturalism, in Dertig dagen a Senegalese-born Fleming is the main focalizing character. Starting from an analysis of the narratological position he occupies in the novel, we will focus on what the reader sees through his eyes. Our attention is drawn to the representation of different physical and imagined spaces that are not equally accessible to everyone as well as to the discrepancy between inner worlds and the outside world. This discrepancy exposes the connection between fear and various forms of violence, between multiculturalism and happiness. Using Sara Ahmed’s theoretical assumptions ‐ from The Politics of Emotions (2004) and The Promise of Happiness (2010) ‐ and Alan Corkhill's conceptualization of Spaces for Happiness (2012), we analyse the violent effect ‐ in terms of dissemination and internalization ‐ of dominant norms in different spaces.

Georg Lukács and Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy was a frame of reference in the work of Lukács twice, during 1914–16 and 1935–6 respectively. His first-time encounter with Tolstoy was presented in the chapter of The Theory of the Novel involving both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, but the former was given more credit and reckoned as the prophet of a new world. It was not until the 1930s that Lukács’ taste changed, and his top priority went to Tolstoy instead. Yet, with due respect to the vicissitudes of his life throughout the 1910s until the 1930s, Lukács remained faithful to his philosophy of history in terms of aesthetic judgment. His preference for the grand artworks was not new as his admiration for Homer showed, but his belief in the resurrection of grand art as realism was rooted in a new and false illusion. Still, his essays on Tolstoy of the 1930s are rich in aesthetic analysis, such as the different aspects of temporality.

Realisms

Realism is a historical phenomenon that is not of the past. Its recurrent rises and falls only attest to its persistence as a measure of representational authority. Even as literary history has produced different moments of “realism wars,” over the politics of realist versus antirealist aesthetics, the demand to represent an often strange and changing reality—however contested a term that may be—guarantees realism’s ongoing critical future. Undoubtedly, realism has held a privileged position in the history of Western literary representation. Its fortunes are closely linked to the development of capitalist modernity, the rise of the novel, the emergence of the bourgeoisie, and the expansion of middle-class readerships with the literacy and leisure to read—and with an interest in reading about themselves as subjects. While many genealogies of realism are closely tied to the history of the rise of the novel—with Don Quixote as a point of departure—it is from its later, 19th-century forms that critical assumptions have emerged about its capacities and limitations. The 19th-century novel—whether its European or slightly later American version—is taken as the apex of the form and is tied to the rise of industrial capitalism, burgeoning ideas of social class, and expansion of empire. Although many of the realist writers of the 19th century were self-reflexive about the form, and often articulated theories of realism as distinct from romance and sentimental fiction, it was not until the mid-20th century, following the canonization of modernism in English departments, that a full-fledged critical analysis of realism as a form or mode would take shape. Our fullest articulations of realism therefore owe a great deal to its negative comparison to later forms—or, conversely, to the effort to resuscitate realism’s reputation against perceived critical oversimplifications. In consequence, there is no single definition of realism—nor even agreement on whether it is a mode, form, or genre—but an extraordinarily heterogenous set of ways of approaching it as a problem of representation. Standard early genealogies of realism are to be found in historical accounts such as Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel and György Lukács’ Theory of the Novel and The Historical Novel, with a guide to important critiques and modifications to be found in Michael McKeon’s Theory of the Novel. This article does not retrace those critical histories. Nor does it presume to address the full range of realisms in the modern arts, including painting, photography, film, and video and digital arts. It focuses on the changing status of realism in the literary landscape, uses the fault lines of contemporary critical debates about realism to refer back to some of the recurrent terms of realism/antirealism debates, and concludes with a consideration of the “return” to realism in the 21st century.