Between a bestseller and poetology. On the aura of the work, discretion towards the reader and the mystery of form on the example of Siegfried Lenz’s novella A Minute’s Silence (2008)

Abstract

Siegfried Lenz’s novella (2008, English edition 2009) has not only been appreciated by literary critics, but also turned out to be a great bestseller. The novella is a frequent subject of research analysis, es- pecially in terms of its location in the tradition of German and world novella writing. This diversity of reception is astonishing and presents an interesting phenomenon. The novella tells a banal love story, but through an intentional silence and a series of intertextual tropes it also creates mysteriousness. The analysis proposed here is based on Walter Benjamin’s notion of “aura” in the 1930s. From today’s point of view, this concept requires a few additions, primarily from the perspective of systems theory. As it turns out this concept can be applied both to the content of the novella and to the strategy of literary criticism, as well as to explain the role of form and context in the personal perception of the text.