Belles Lettres

Belles Lettres (French belles lettres " Fiction ") is a set arrived in the 17th century term for the embossed mainly of French fashions range of the book market, which is located between the humanities and scientific literature ( " lettres " or " sciences" ) one hand and the unassuming book production on the other hand einrichtete (which in the 19th century came the German under the word chapbooks ). In parallel, established the term " belles lettres ", which today is used synonymously with " Fiction ".

History

In English the " belles lettres " have long been under the word " polite literature" traded in the German sat at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, first the word " gallant Sciences" by. However, this term was the emergence in the 18th century criticism of the galant style ideal victim and could not hold on in the sequence. The erudite poetry criticism established from the 1720s as more prestigious and more focused on the concept of art, the " fine arts ". On the way into the 19th century, the word " Fiction " became a synonym for the " poetic national literature ". In the mid-19th century the notion of content was " literature " redefined so that it captured the poetic and fictional works of the nation above all. The concept of Belles Lettres won the German at this time new meaning and was used for the international popular book market.

In the 20th century, the derived word addition Fiction prevailed. " Fiction " covers now largely the heritage of the Belles Lettres.

• Literary term