La mise en cause des genres littéraires en Europe au tournant des 19e/20e siècles
Literary Genres at the Turn of the 19/20th Century in Europe: A Reconsideration

Summary/Abstract: The reconsideration of literary genres may be viewed as one of the main features of the European literature of the turn of the 19th to 20th century. This is to be studied through the following observations: a) the development of the novel, the most flexible genre, which emerges rather late in some “younger” literatures which began with the lyrical form. According to one of the main theoreticians of the novel, Émile Zola, the word roman itself does not mean anything yet, because novelists have nothing to do with fictionalising: they have to write reports or studies; b) the co-called crisis of the theatre, as shown by Peter Szondi, relies broadly on the intrusion of narrative procedures in drama, especially by H. Ibsen, A. P. Chekhov, A. Strindberg; c) the status of language: is there a literary use of language? Does that literary use of language create a reality? Are literary genres still necessary? Those questions are being raised more and more widely at the end of the 19th century.

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