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Introduction to “Brevity as Form”

Editor’s Note: Paul Zumthor’s “La Brièveté comme forme” is a suggestive take on the relations between brevity and form, one that also addresses questions about such matters as narrative time and about what is and isn’t narrative. Because the essay is not well-known among narrative theorists, I welcomed William Nelles’s proposal that Narrative publish the translation by him and Laurence Thiollier Moscato. I am also grateful that Professor Nelles agreed to provide this introductory frame for the essay that puts it in the larger context of Zumthor’s career.