Aspirations and failures of contemporary narrative in a novel from Roman Ehrlich

Abstract

In his latest novel, Die fürchterlichen Tage des schrecklichen Grauens, Roman Ehrlich presents the trajectory of a group of people which aims the production of an innovative horror movie that depicts all contemporary fears. They do not reject the inspiration of various movies, including B-movies, and trust their capability of producing a high-quality avant-garde work. The future failure of the project is clear, for the group is moved by vanity and insecurity, and lacks any of its pretense artistic qualities. Based on the theories of Andreas Huyssen about the post-modern, Bourdieu about the value of art, and Boris Groys about the new, this article discusses how poorly grounded artistic ambitions produce the feeling of emptiness explored in Roman Ehrlich’s novel.