Antecedentes do conto moderno: a novela e as formas breves medievais na teoria do primeiro romantismo alemão

Abstract

In his essay called “Note on the Poetic Works of Giovanni Boccaccio” (1801), Friedrich Schlegel describes the novel as the antecedent of the modern short story. Schlegel’s work might be regarded as one of the first attempts, in German language, to understand the main characteristics of this short form, which later will be treated by important theorists of the short story, as Edgar Allan Poe and Julio Cortázar. Departing from the analyses of the novels of the Decameron (1348-1353),from Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), as well as the short poetic medieval forms, such as the lai from Marie de France and the French fabliau, among others, the German thinker establishes the main aspects of the novel and its relation to the modern short story. The present paper analyses an discusses the theories of the novel as the antecedent of the modern short story in Early German Romanticism.