Abstract (eng)
This diploma thesis deals with the topics of minimalism and of reduction in selected short stories by Raymond Carver and Judith Hermann. It asks the following questions: Which stylistic devices and narrative methods are applied by Raymond Carver and Judith Hermann in their short stories and which similarities and differences can be found within these minimialist tendencies of the two authors? In order to answer these questions, the selected short stories will be analyzed at first and then put in contrast to each other in a comparative chapter. While narratology serves as the theoretic foundation of analysis, the minimalist features explored in the analyses essentially follow the catalogue of features attributed to literary minimalism as summarized and charted by Sandra Berchtel. After an explanation of the terms short story, Kurzgeschichte, minimalism or rather literary minimalism as much as the demonstration of the theoretic basis and the method of analysis, individual analyses of the short stories will follow. Individual aspects of minimalism in the texts by Carver and Hermann will be explored by looking at the level of content (story) and the level of depiction (discourse), respectively. The results of these analyses will form the basis for the subsequent comparison.