| Writing the New Berlin: The German Capital in Post-Wall Literature Contributor(s): Gerstenberger, Katharina (Author) |
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ISBN: 1571135138 ISBN-13: 9781571135131 Publisher: Camden House (NY) OUR PRICE: $37.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | European - German - History | Europe - Germany - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 830.935 |
| Series: Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture |
| Physical Information: 0.51" H x 6" W x 9" (0.73 lbs) 220 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Germany |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The wall was still coming down when critics began to call for the great Berlin novel that could explain what was happening to Germany and the Germans. Such a novel never appeared. Instead, writers have created a patchwork imaginary -- in the form of about 300 works of fiction set in Berlin -- of a city and a nation whose identity collapsed virtually overnight. Contributors to this literary collage include established writers like Peter Schneider and Christa Wolf, young authors like Tanja Dückers and Ingo Schramm, German-Turkish authors Zafer Senocak and Yadé Kara, and the Austrians Kathrin Röggla and Marlene Streeruwitz. The non-arrival of the great Berlin novel marks the reorientation in German culture and literature that is the focus of this study: the experience of unification was too diverse, too postmodern, too influenced by global developments to be captured by one novel. Berlin literature of the postunification decade is marked by ambiguity: change is linked to questions of historical continuity; postmodern simulation finds its counterpart in a quest for authenticity; and the assimilation of Germanness into European and global contexts is both liberation and loss. This book pursues a nuanced understanding of the search for new ways to tell the story of Germany's past and of its importance for the formation of a new German identity. KATHARINA GERSTENBERGER is Professor of German at the University of Cincinnati. |
Contributor Bio(s): Gerstenberger, Katharina: - Katharina Gerstenberger is associate professor of German at the University of Cincinatti. |