GENRE VARIETY OF SHORT PROSE BY ELKE HEIDENREICH (ON THE MATERIAL OF THE BOOK «ALLES KEIN ZUFALL»

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the genre specificity of short prose by the contemporary German writer Elke Heidenreich based on the material of the book "Alles kein Zufall" (Everything is no coincidence). The paratext to the book defines all of its 189 texts as short stories, however, the genre palette of this book is much broader. It contains, as the analysis has shown, short stories, short-short stories, anecdote, jokes, humorous pieces, prose miniatures, aphorisms, futures. It is due to the processes of mutual influence of genres due to the diversity of talents of writers who use these genres and develop them, and the influence of the American literary tradition on the German literature, especially with regard to short stories and short-short stories. The German literary tradition in the genres of short prose is represented by such famous authors as Robert Musil, Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, Robert Walser, etc., who developed such varieties of the prose genre as prose miniature, calendar story, anecdote etc.
The fragments of life presented in the book reflect the topics that interest the modern reader, meet his needs for entertainment literature, best-selling literature, short story literature, which is gladly perceived by the new generation of readers with clip thinking.
The style of short prose by Elke Heidenreich is determined by the concentration of thought and the corresponding brevity of form, which is characterized by enumeration (mostly adjectives in the function of epithets and nouns) to describe a certain situation, and ring repetitions as carriers of integrity and completeness of the text. Genre diversity is also manifested in a certain tonality (epic (unpleasant, enthusiastic, touching tone), ironic, humorous or ironic-humorous, etc.).