ABSTRACT
Midway through Elke Erb’s Mountains in Berlin, an anthology of short prose translated by Rosmarie Waldrop and selected from Gutachten (1976), Der Faden der Geduld (1978), and Vexierbild (1983), appears a relatively long text devoted to Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811). This text keystones Erb’s collection for several reasons. Most importantly, Kleist, best known for his plays, was also the pioneering author of a series of “anecdotes” written for the Berliner Abendblätter during the winter of 1810-1811. Within the context of the classic German novella, Kleist’s Anekdoten constituted early examples of brief narratives; in other words, prototypes of “short-shorts.” Twenty years later, young Charles Dickens (1812-1870) would be producing similar pieces, eventually collected in Sketches by Boz (1836-1837); Chekhov (1860-1904), too, sharpened his pen by composing half-literary, half-journalistic stories based on humorous daily incidents; and by the end of the nineteenth century, the newspaper sketch had evolved into a major genre, perhaps best represented by the indefatigable American O. Henry (1862-1910). Yet it was paradoxically Kleist, otherwise a Romantic, who was among the first to provoke European authors into questioning the literary legitimacy of the “unheard-of event that has actually happened,” as Goethe magisterially defined the sole subject matter appropriate for a full-fledged Novelle. Kleist’s Anekdoten encouraged writers to focus instead on the most banal facts and routines of everyday life, and to disclose their unsuspected significance.
