Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Hans-Wolfgang Schaller: The Survival of the Novel: E. L. Doctorow's Escape out of the Postmodern Deadend

Strange reality. A novel, then, would be an imaginative dialectic form mediating between self and world and creatively relying an the solidity and meaning of the linguistic sign referring to some external reality. In saying that art is 'creatively relying' on the dependability of the sign, however, also is to point at a problem which from the very beginning was inherent in the concept of mimesis. Gerald F. Else, 1957, in his monumental commentary an Aristotle's Poetics, repeatedly stresses the double nature of mimesis, that is as imitation and as constructive technique. Mimesis thus also is "the making or construction of the poem", thus a novel finally would be the draught of a world by itself, inherently, however, referring to and depicting the real world at large. Therefore, mimesis is not to be understood as a simple imitation and precise rendering of reality it is also a creative act of giving form and meaning to occurrences man experiences. Thus the literary artist is giving form and meaning to events he believes to be of significance. At the center of Aristotle's discussion of mimesis therefore, and it is important in our current theoretical debate about postmodern implications of linguistic and epistemological theory an literature's validity to remember that, stands the notion that mimetic representation means constructing a meaningful and believable plot, which is representing human action. Other than the never ending flux of life human action necessarily consists of a beginning a middle and an ending.

3 On the abstract level Aristotle therefore argues that the plot line of a good story has to follow the requirements of the intended effect, it is important to find an effective beginning, a meaningful (morally of ethical) climactic middle, and a satisfying ending. This of course raises the question of moral standards as any human action involves or touches the lives of others. That is why formally a plot has to have a size proportional to the ethical problem or problems presented, and in logical terms it has to give a reasonable impression of plausibility as to the sequence of events. 2 Gerald F. Else, Aristotle's Poetics: The Argument, Leiden: Brill, 1957, 9. 3 cp. Richard Kannicht, "Handlung als Grundbegriff der Aristotelischen Theorie des Dramas", Poetica, 8, (1976), 326-336, 331. 88