Role prose
Role prose is a literary form in which the author assumes the role of a fictional or fictionalized character and ascribes statements to him that he would never make himself.
Requirements and delimitation
Role prose is a basic requirement of any artistic creation. An author can only transform them into an artistic work - even if he processes strongly autobiographical material - if he emancipates himself from pure experience and thus distances himself. However, role prose in the narrower sense as a special form must be distinguished from this basic condition. It is a literary form, usually carried by a strong first-person narrator , in which a main character - similar to an actor - strongly dominates the event through his voice and view of things, given to him by the author. Authors often use sociolects , dialects , slangs or jargons to make the tone more convincing and to create a “pull” . Role prose may or may not take the form of an inner monologue .
Role prose in premodern literature
Role prose is one of the oldest literary stylistic devices. This is due to the fact that in the literatures of antiquity, the Middle Ages and the early modern period, artists were not understood as autonomous subjects, but as artisans . They were always dependent on changing clients and patrons and accordingly had to necessarily fulfill changing roles. Typical examples of this can be found in the poems of the Middle Ages, where the same author often takes different positions in the first person tone.
Role prose in modern times
From Enlightenment to Young Germany
With the modern age, the Enlightenment and sensitivity, and especially with the genius concept of Sturm und Drang , a change takes place towards a view of the artist as at least potentially autonomous, self-creative subject. Here, too, caution is advisable, because in typical works of this literary epoch, for example in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther , there are exemplary examples of role prose. Goethe's epistolary novel is not autobiographical, but rather in the role of an ingenious young man the author puts it in the mouth in an artistic tone. In the committed literature of Junge Deutschland , role prose decreased somewhat - although here, too, it must be pointed out that the best authors, above all Heinrich Heine , made frequent use of this trick, albeit ironically broken.
Biedermeier and Historicism
In Biedermeier and especially in historicism , role prose increased again considerably. Both the often bizarre loners in Biedermeier literature as well as the characters in countless poems, verses, novels and dramas in historical literature in the second half of the 19th century are typical examples of role prose in which the author either delves into the smallest, most remote or goes into the distant, historical and necessarily allows his staff to act like actors according to very fixed role models.
Postmodern
In the postmodern era, role prose has been increasingly used again since the 1970s. A distinction can be made between two approaches. Either strongly (auto) biographical drafts based on the New Inwardness are broken by role prose and thus playfully removed from the claim to authenticity as represented by the New Inwardness; or will - as in historicism - reinforced again history novels written, be it The Name of the Rose , Perfume or Measuring the World , in which the author fully or semi-historical individuals can play their roles very own tones.