|
Intellectual House o' Pancakes Comments Page and Grill
(On some browsers you'll need to refresh this page in order to see the comment you just left.)
iwombat - 2006-09-20 20:55:04 Oui. Oh, sorry, that means, "Yes." is there a queue to borrow it when you're done? It's not due back to the liberry for another few weeks, and it takes about an hour to read, so you may borry.
When I was in college, I did an extensive independent study on the German novella, and I've waited all my adult life to answer this question. Technically, no--a novella is not defined by its length, but rather by a certain way the plot unfolds. The story is usually narrated in the first person, and the plot centers on a very specific and short period in the narrator's life. There is generally a pronounced turning point (often a deus ex machina) that emphasizes the squished-ness of the narrative arc. Novellas, because of this short arc, tend to be shorter than novels and longer than short stories, but there are novellas that are 10 pages long, and there are those that are even longer than the average novel. Technically, The Mystery Guest is a memoir, because it really happened, but the form is classic novella: short, compressed, concerning a very specific time period, first-person narrative, and a very obvious turning point. Good reads: Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, which you've probably read, is a classic example. Also, lots of stuff by Goethe, who perfected the form, especially my personal fave, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which apparently was so popular in its day that it caused several young men to commit suicide, like its protagonist. (This was before heavy metal). add your comment: |
