In "Suddenness," which is considered alongside the recently published book "The Farewell, Theory of Grief" as his main work, Karl Heinz Bohrer explores the question of what characterizes modern literature and aesthetics, defining the aesthetic as the sudden. Art exists there - and only there - where the new, the inexplicable, and that which eludes all laws and probabilities occurs. The achievement of art lies not in what it allows us to recognize, but in that it compels us to recognize. In a word: Bohrer's book is a plea for the autonomy of the aesthetic.