Parabola (language)
The parabola ( ancient Greek παραβολή parabolḗ “comparison, simile, equality”, Latin parabolic and parabola ) is a form of literature related to the parable , an instructive and short story. It raises questions about morality and ethical principles, which can be understood by transferring them to another realm. The events in the foreground (image level) have a transferred meaning (similar to allegory ). By deriving the general (factual level) intended, the parable is intended to make the reader think and come to an understanding. Conversely, the reader should understand the author's work. A parable usually contains two lessons: one in the narrower sense, and one in the broader sense. The teaching can be included both explicitly and implicitly.
The characteristics of this form of literature can also be illustrated in the sense of a donkey's bridge with a geometric parabola : The two branches of the parabola then stand for the image and factual level of the narrative. At the apex is the abstract link between what is told and what is meant ( tertium comparationis ), which the understanding reader has to open up for himself.
According to Zymner, the parable is a macro form of inauthenticity , which thus stands next to micro forms such as metaphor or irony.
etymology
The term parabola is derived from the ancient Greek παραβολή parabolē "juxtaposition, comparison, parable". This itself comes from the verb παραβάλλειν parabállein , which is made up of the word parts παρά pará "next to" and βάλλειν bállein "to throw" and means "to juxtapose, stand next to, compare".
language
Since parables contain a reference structure to the real world, they are usually characterized by a pictorial language. For this reason, rhetorical figures such as metaphors , irony , comparisons , personifications and connoted terms are very often elements of this type of text.
Differentiation from other types of text
The parable is often seen as a long text of a fable , parable , example, etc. Nevertheless, it differs from these written forms through encryption (fable), indirectness (parable) and concretization (example). As long as it contains no morality, the fable is intended to get the reader to think about the criticism and to put himself in the position of the characters who create the text. The parable that speaks of people is different, so that one does not have to further interpret the content. Furthermore, it does not try to offer an explanation for the reader, like the fable, but to convince someone of their own opinion. In addition, a parable is usually explained in the parable, whereby one should improve one's own behavior. In the case of a fable, on the other hand, you only criticize what you would like to change, but no suggestions are made to change what has been criticized, which makes you think about the fable.
Well-known parabolic poets
Selection (with work examples)
- Aesop : Fables
- Ingeborg Bachmann : Poems
- Giovanni Boccaccio
- Bertolt Brecht : Stories from Mr. Keuner , The halting rise of Arturo Ui
- Fyodor Michailowitsch Dostoevsky
- Friedrich Dürrenmatt : The physicists
- Max Frisch : Andorra , Biedermann and the arsonists
- Franz Kafka : Before the law
- Günter Kunert
- Jean de La Fontaine
- Friedrich Adolf Krummacher
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing : Ring parabola
- Friedrich Nietzsche : So spoke Zarathustra
- Yevgeny Lwowitsch Schwarz : The Dragon
Well-known parables
- Heracles at the crossroads of Prodikos or Tryphon
- The parable of the stomach and limbs of Menenius Agrippa (allegedly 494 BC)
- Parable of the prodigal son ( Lk 15.11-32 EU )
- Parable of the workers in the vineyard ( Mt 20.1-16 EU )
- Parable of the wise and foolish virgins ( Mt 25.1-13 EU )
- Ring parable in the drama Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (didactic parable)
- An everyday confusion , The blow to the courtyard gate and Before the Law by Franz Kafka (paradoxical and absurd parables)
- The Good Man of Sezuan by Bertolt Brecht , 1943
- The railway allegory by Erich Kästner , 1932
- Animal Farm by George Orwell , 1945
- Andorra by Max Frisch , 1961
Anthologies
- Josef Billen (Ed.): Deutsche Parabeln , Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-007761-3
literature
- Werner Brettschneider: The modern German parable. Development and importance . Schmidt, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-503-01299-0 .
- Theo Elm (Ed.): Fable and Parable. Cultural and historical processes in the 18th century . Fink Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7705-2943-X .
- Theo Elm: The modern parable. Parabola and parabolic theory and history . Fink Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7705-2706-2 (plus habilitation thesis, University of Erlangen 1981).
- Theo Elm (ed.): The parable. Parabolic shapes in 20th century German poetry . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt / M. 1986, ISBN 3-518-38560-7 .
- Otto Knörrich (Ed.): Forms of literature in individual representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 478). 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-520-47802-1 .
- Thomas Schirren : Parable. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Volume 26, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-7772-1509-9 , Sp. 932-968
- Zymner, Rüdiger: Inauthenticity. Studies on the semantics and history of the parable. Schöningh 1991.
