Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Self in Transition: East German Autobiographical Writing Before and After Unification. Essays in Honour of Dennis Tate Edited by David Clarke and Axel Goodbody

2014; German Studies Association; Volume: 37; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/gsr.2014.0101

2164-8646

Regine Criser,

European history and politics

Reviewed by: The Self in Transition: East German Autobiographical Writing Before and After Unification. Essays in Honour of Dennis Tate Edited by David Clarke and Axel Goodbody Regine Criser The Self in Transition: East German Autobiographical Writing Before and After Unification. Essays in Honour of Dennis Tate. Edited by David Clarke and Axel Goodbody. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012. Pp. 304. Cloth $90.00. ISBN 978-9042035935. This volume, edited by David Clark and Axel Goodbody, presents a collection of essays assembled in honor of Dennis Tate and his work on GDR literature, particularly his research on autobiographical writings by East German authors. The introduction by Clarke and Goodbody, after briefly discussing Tate’s contributions to German Studies in the UK and beyond, highlights the various modes of autobiographical reinterpretation and realignment that can be found in works produced after the two historical caesuras in recent German history, 1945 and 1989, and that are the shared focus of all collected essays. Of chief interest is the interconnectedness between the predominant social and political values at the time of writing and publication on the one hand and the act of autobiographical writing on the other hand. As can be expected from a volume of this kind, Tate’s scholarship features prominently in all essays, and here it is mainly his research on “subjective authenticity” as discussed by Christa Wolf in her essay “Lesen und Schreiben” (1968) that provides a core reference point for the majority of essays. It is also not surprising that none of the essays set out to challenge Tate’s argument, but rather reaffirm the value of his approach by supplying additional support and examples. But beyond that, the essays bring Tate’s research in dialogue with relevant theoretical approaches for their particular subject, hence situating Tate’s work within a broader theoretical framework that extends beyond German Studies and often even beyond studies of autobiographical writing. The volume is divided into three historically defined sections. Part One focuses on “The Third Reich in Socialist Autobiographies” and the essays analyze various genres of autobiographical writing by Hans Marchwitza, Greta Kuckhoff, Rudi Goguel, and Elfriede Brüning. The essays in Part Two deal with “Writing the Self in the German Democratic Republic.” Given the centrality of Christa Wolf in Tate’s research as well as her significance in the GDR, it is not surprising that three of the five essays in this part of the book are concerned with her work. The other two essays address the writings of Wulf Kirsten and Volker Braun. While Part One and Two address the works of writers from the same generation, the essays in Part Three, with the versatile heading [End Page 712] “Shifting Perspectives after 1989,” span multiple generations of writers by discussing the works of Günter de Bruyn, Jurij Brězan, Reinhard Jirgl, and Ingo Schulze. Ute Hirsekorn’s analysis of Günter Schabowski’s autobiographical self-reflections after 1989 even extends the scope of analysis beyond the literary scene and emphasizes the narrative strategies Schabowski employs to negate individual responsibility in an attempt to distance himself from the GDR government and its actions. Despite the variety of works, genres, and authors discussed in the individual sections and essays, their general reference to Tate’s research creates a cohesive and simultaneously comprehensive volume. In addition to the broad theme of autobiographical reinterpretations after historical caesuras that creates a common thread throughout the book, a number of essays across sections are connected through reappearing subtopics. Two essays, for example, address the issue of autobiographical projection onto historical figures as crucial narrative strategy, for example in the works of Christa Wolf and Günter de Bruyn. Ricarda Schmidt’s intriguing reading of Christa Wolf’s Kein Ort. Nirgends with a precise analysis of the original Kleist quotes and their recontextualization in Wolf’s novel is one of the strongest pieces in the volume. Related to the strategy of autobiographical projection is the complicated subject of self-censorship of writers in the GDR that is addressed in essays in Part One and Two of the book. As Martin Kane shows for Hans Marchwitza or Renate Rechtien for Christa Wolf: authors consciously adjusted autobiographical details...