What distinguishes the novel from t

What distinguishes the novel from the story (and from the epic in the narrower sense) is the essential dependence on the book. The dissemination of the novel became possible only with the invention of printing.”3 Of particular interest to us is the way that these two forms establish their authority, according to Benjamin. Although storytelling draws on personal experience, it is ultimately tradition and memory that give the storyteller authority: “Memorycreates the chain of tradition which passes a happening on from generation to generation. It is the Muse-derived element of the epic art in a broader sense and encompasses its varieties. In the first place among these is the one practice by the storyteller. It starts the web which all stories together form in the end. One ties on the next, as the great storytellers, particularly the Oriental ones, have always readily shown” (98). Benjamin describes the appeal and authority of the novel in contrasting terms: