Abstract

In the article the parameters of the crime novel and crime story that were used by the postwar German novel of the investigation were highlighted and analyzed. The transformation of the range of problems of criminal literature in the new conditions is showed on the material of such works as ‘Aula‘ Kant, ‘Der Fall d’Arthez‘ G.-E. Nossack ‘Buridan’s ass‘ G. de Breun, ‘Gruppenbild mit Dame‘ G. Boell, ‘Black ass‘ L. Rinzer et al. It is demonstrated which formal elements that organize the system of images, time-space and the intersection of ‘voice streams‘, the texts succeed from the twentieth-century enlightenment ‘postpitaval’s‘ prose. Traditions of Schiller, Goethe and others expressed through the ideological setting of the novel of the investigation, the duality of its structure and the relationship of narrative plans. The narrators of investigation novel work for underlining their detachment; they are out of the events and cherish their independence. Masks and aliases are actively used with the view of creating of the effect of ‘non-presence‘. Authors play with the grammatical forms: I am - you are - he is. Therefore, the novel of investigation adopts the social agenda and coherence with the historical period from the tradition of a criminal novel. Ethical measures used by narrators to evaluate the events described are succeeded from tradition as well. Some elements, which stay relevant, are used as productive