Abstract

The essay scrutinizes the question of a particular aesthetics hinging on the specific media embedding of small literary forms. What influence does the calendar exert on the short stories published in it? To what extent is the newspaper responsible for the peculiar poetics of the so-called ›fait divers‹? And what exactly turns a tweet into twitterature? Following the assumption that the aesthetic attraction of small forms is not limited to their shortness but also depending on material restrictions, writing and reception habits linked to the medium for which each piece was written and in which it is received, the essay looks at this interplaybetween the small formand its medial context. And picking up on the recently intensifying debate around the specific poetics of small forms in the digital age the historical perspective is used to illuminate contemporary developments.