Realism, seriality and fantastic. Sorts of narrative in the contemporary German Literature

Abstract

The article is based on two previous publications (BAßLER 2013a; 2013b) and analyses realism as narrative procedure in our present; for this purpose, examples from Germanspeaking literature and television are discussed. The author ascertains, both in the so called high-brow literature and in genres as fantasy and German TV-serials a kind of realism that invokes and confirms the current image of reality and prevalent codes of meaning by conventionalized frames, no matter whether the contents would be classified as realistic or fantastic. This sort of literature is successful because it enables comfortable reading and, at the same time, claims the legitimacy of high literary authenticity. An alternative to this international style of trivial realism seem to be, on the one hand, postmodern and pop-cultural works that expose being constructed by means of quotations and, on the other, procedures like “short cuts” which dissect linear metonymic narrative and assemble it to form a new, complex and meaningful totality