Is Storytelling Dead?: Finding Walter Benjamin's

Abstract

Walter Benjamin in his 1936 essay "The Storyteller" identifies the quintessential elements of a style of writing he terms the story, found in folktales and epics, which he contrasts to the modern novel. While Benjamin believed that this form of narrative was dying out, by looking at the works of Robert Jordan and Patrick Rothfuss this paper will prove that this type of narrative is still in existence today and found frequently in the modern fantasy genre.