Textual Responses to German Unification: Processing Historical and Social Change in Literature and Film

by Carol Anne Costabile-Heming (Editor), Rachel J. Halverson (Editor), Kristie A. Foell (Editor)

Overview

The unification of the two German states changed the geo-political, economic, social, and cultural borders of Germany and Europe. This volume in three parts researches how East German and West German authors and directors reacted to these radical changes.

The basis of this research are fictional, autobiographical, journalistic, and cinematic texts. The authors and directors presented in this volume not only comment on the changes which they themselves experienced but also voice their changing attitudes to their own past within the divided Germany.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110170221
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	06/21/2001
Edition description:	Reprint 2013
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.69(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction

Carol Anne Costabile-Heming/Rachel J. Halverson/Kristie A. Foell, "Schreiber, was siehst du?" Processing Historical and Social Change

Authors and Their Worlds

N. Ann Rider, The Journey Eastward: Helga Schütz' Vom Glanz der Elbe and the Mnemonic Politics of German Unification

Stuart Tabener, "ob es sich bei diesem Experiment um eine gescheiterte Utopie oder ein Verbrechen gehandelt hat": Enlightenment, Utopia , the GDR and National Socialism in Monika Marons Work from Flugasche to Pawels Briefe

James Reece, Remembering the GDR: Memory and Evasion in Autobiographical Writing from the Former GDR

Rolf Jucker, "Gefälle in der Landschaft" - On the Critique of Real Existing Capitalism in Volker Braun's Texts

Rachel J. Halverson, Comedic Bestseller or Insightful Satire: Taking the Interview and Autobiography to Task in Thomas Brussig's Helden wie wir

Multiple Voices - Generational Views

Karoline von Oppen, "Man muß jetzt laut schreien, um gehört zu werden": Stefan Heym, Walter Jens, Helga Königsdorf: An Intellectual Opposition?

Alisa Kasle, Everyday Stories of Hope and Despair in Eastern Germany: Kerstin Hensel and Ingo Schulze Write About Life After the Wende

Jill Twark, "Ko...Ko...Konolialismus", Said the Giraffe: Humorous and Satirical Responses to German Unification

Gerald A. Fetz, Theatrical Confrontations with the Wende and Post-Unification Germany: Strauß, Pohl, and Hein

Cineamatic Responses

Robert D. Levy/Rick McCormick, Mastering the Past and Present: Problems of Memory in Postwar and Post-Wende German Cinema

Massimo Locatelli, Ghosts of Babelsberg: Narrative Strategies of the Wendefilm

Jenifer Ward, German-Germanness: On Borders, Hybridity, and Sameness in Margarethe von Trotta's Das Versprechen

Kristie A. Foell, History as Melodrama: German Division and Unification in Two Recent Films

Helen Cafferty, Sonnenallee: Taking Comedy Seriously in Unified Germany

Editorial Reviews

"This volume provides profound insights into challenges Germany faced after unification [...]"
Kerstin Gaddy in: Seminar 2/2008

From the Publisher

Fifteen essays, presented by Costabile-Heming (German, Southwest Missouri State U.), Halverson (German, Washington State U.), and Foell (German, Bowling Green State U.), examine textual and cinematic responses to German unification as they appeared before, during, and after the 1989 opening of the Berlin Wall. The relationship of the textual producers' lives and self-identities to their political and social contexts and wider issues of political power, historical memory, cultural interaction, and economic systems are all touched upon by the papers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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