New German Review: A Journal of Germanic Studies

The calendar story is a genre that is largely ignored by literary criticism. The history of the genre indicates a progressive emancipation from its medium, i.e. its printing on calendars. Bertolt Brecht, for instance, published a collection of stories entitled “Kalendergeschichten” with no reference to a calendar, so that there are “Kalendergeschichten” without calendars. This paper traces the history of the genre with regard to the disappearance of the medium, the calendar, and provides an extensive reading with regard to dates, times, politics, and historical events in: Brecht’s “Cäsar und sein Legionär.” It argues that in this ‘new’ calendar story, the calendar not only plays a central role within the narrative, but is indeed being narrated. The calendar is no longer the medium, but moves ‘inside’ the story and defines it from within.