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