Formen des Gesprächs – Gespräch der Formen
Diderot, Schlegel, Musil und die Theorie des Romans

Why did the reflexion on modern literature, from Diderot to Schlegel and Novalis and from Lukács and Benjamin to Musil or Bakthin, start from the novel’s assumed formlessness? On the basis of this question, the book makes the argument that by viewing dialogue or conversation (entretien, Gespräch) as the missing link between the novel’s immanent criticism and its theorization, said authors were able to turn literature into a designated laboratory for a renewed cultural imagination.