મરણોત્તર/-

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સુરેશ જોષી

… the novella is based on a single situation and – on the level of plot and characters – remains there. It does not claim to shape the whole of social reality, nor even to depict that whole as it appears from the vantage point of a fundamental and topical problem. Its truth rests on the fact that an individual situation – usually an extreme one ડ્ઢ is possible in a certain society at a certain level of development, and, just because it is possible, is characteristic of this society and this level. For this reason the novella can omit the social genesis of the characters, their relationships, the situations in which they act. Also for this reason, it needs no agencies to set these situations in motion and can forgo concrete perspectives. This peculiarity of the novella, which to be sure permits an infinite internal variety from Boccaccio to Chekhov, enables it to appear historically both as a forerunner and rearguard of the great forms; it can be the artistic representative of the Not – Yet or of the No – Longer, of a totality which can be portrayed. – Georg Lukacs