Literary genres and compared literature

Abstract

In approaching the study of poetic traditions among which established relationships of influence have not mediated, current comparatistics requires a reconsideration of the literary genre as a historic entity. Jean-Marie Schaeffer names as «analogic» those generic terms used in compared literature to designate works that do not share proven historical links. Given that the referent of those generic terms is an ideal model without effective realization in the text, Schaeffer’s proposal does not clarify whether there is a limit for its application, which in reality deprives the analogic genres of all descriptive value. As a solution, the author suggests to turn to the concept of poetic presupposition, already advanced in his time by Jonathan Culler to counteract the effects of intertextuality. Poetic presupposition allows the establishment of an indirect link between the text and the ideal model that acts as a referent of the analogic genres, as illustrates the controversial genre of the german Novelle.