A question asked without expecting an answer, because the answer is already implied, or because what matters is the doubt it exposes.
In The Magic Mountain
Can one narrate time itself, time as such, in and of itself? No, indeed not, such a thing would be an insane audacity!
The chapter opens with a question that already carries its answer: "Can one narrate time itself?" The answer comes in the same line, "No, indeed not." The doubt serves as a hook for the narrator, who then does what he has just denied.
Chapter VII: Peeperkorn, the Great Boredom and the Thunder, the narrator
What was the world that opened behind her, and that, according to Hans Castorp's inner presentiments, must be the world of forbidden love? It was death.
Chapter VII: Peeperkorn, the Great Boredom and the Thunder, the narrator
Will love still emerge from this worldwide festival of death, and from the pernicious fever that inflames the sky of the rainy night?
Chapter VII: Peeperkorn, the Great Boredom and the Thunder, the narrator
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