(Co)Present Tense: Marcel Beyer Reads the Past

Abstract

Starting from the history of narration in the present tense, this article describes the invention and development of the present-tense historical novel at the end of the twentieth century. With the help of narratological tools (especially conceptions of fiction, narration, and focalization), it outlines the specificity of the “altermodern novel of the past.” In these texts, a present-tense narration is situated in the past and coupled with a retelling in the present. In this formation of narrative temporality, historical time is produced as it is narrated or read without having to turn experience into a past experience or having to presentify the past. This article shows how two novels by Marcel Beyer—Kaltenburg and The Karnau Tapes—exemplify this innovative procedure of producing historical time.