The Death and Afterlife of Literary Genres

Kirjoittajat

• Sari Kivistö
• Erika Pihl
• Katariina Kärkelä
• Isa Välimäki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57048/aasf.156209

Avainsanat:

kirjallisuuden lajit, elinkaari, kirjallisuus

Abstrakti

This paper explores the death and afterlife of literary genres. We ask what steps the final phase of the literary life cycle of genres, after the assumed stages of rise and peak, might include and whether that process is irreversible. The traditional biological and evolutionary models of literary history are challenged by the metaphorical understanding of generic death. We consider the differences between natural and literary forms of death, and then explore the literary transience of one specific genre, Arthurian romance, by bearing in mind that literature is a tradition-sustaining form that can return like a ghost to life again.