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Dennis Tate (review)

2001; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 96; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mlr.2001.a828551

2222-4319

Roderick H. Watt,

Historical Geography and Cartography

Reviews 898 which thepublisher Anton Kippenberg wasa regional director), thecreation of portable field libraries, front libraries andfront bookshops, theofficial encouragement ofpopular series issued bysuchpublishers as Perthes, Ullstein, Diederichs, Insel, Reclam, andCotta, and,perhaps most interesting for the light itsheds onthe changing attitudes tothe warexperience andits meaning, the numerous anthologies ofFeldpostbriefe, themostimportant ofwhich, compiled byPhilipp Witkop and initially titled Kriegsbriefe deutscher Studenten (I9I6), wentthrough foureditions (including a Volksausgabe). Theproduct ofpainstaking work innumerous archives, thebookpresents a widerange ofstatistical anddocumentary information onall thesetopics.It also discusses, especially in ChapterI, thetheoretical issues underpinning itsapproach. Thereishowever a pricetobe paidfor this positive achievement: thestyle becomes onoccasion unnecessarily ponderous andabstract, andanalysis often takes second placetothelisting orcursory examination oftexts oflittle ornoliterary merit. It isperhaps significant thatcloseanalyses ofindividual texts areconfined to works from thesmallgroupofwriters whohad remained immune from the institutional conditioning process thatis theauthor's mainsubject; remarks on Koppen's Heeresbertcht (I930)andanextensive examination ofthehitherto ignored (butrecently reprinted byK. Guhl)Es lebe der Krteg! EinBrief (I925,three years before Remarque's bestseller) byBruno Vogel areparticularly valuable. However, inbringing tolight a massofofficially sponsored orendorsed work produced and published before the warwasover, Natter hasdemonstrated that thereceived view (that a timelag ofalmost tenyears wasnecessary before thewarnovelcould establish itself) isnolonger tenable without some modification. Works ofwarliterature arealsolinked toallthepost-war debates andactions which sought to invest theexperience ofthewar(especially at thefront) with meaning, by commemoration, memorialization and, above all, mythification through resonant slogans andtopoi(for example, Langemarck, Verdun, Kameradschaft , Heimat, Kultur). Thestudy aimstoshowfurther that'thegeneral failure of (anti)war novels ofthedemocratic left inWeimar towinthebattle ofsignification [. . .] arguably bespeaks thecontinued power ofanearlier narrational scheme, one that National Socialism appropriated andprovided with a convincing telos', uniting theFrontgemeinschaft with theVolksgemeinschaft, for 'what isatstake [. . .] isnotthe accuracy ofthefacts recorded butthe valueoftheframe that generated these while precluding thegeneration ofothers'. Intheprocess Natter challenges thereader to accept that the literary text isa construction, the product ofthe interaction ofa host ofmediating agencies andinstitutions. Doubts mayarise when a possible corollary ofthisthesis isbrought tomind: thesubject, which intheconventional viewis responsible forthespecific literary quality ofthetext, is alsoa product ofsuch * e lnteractlon. UNIVERSITY OFSTANDREWS MALCOLM HUMBLE Gunter deBrayn inPerspective. Ed. by DENNIS TATE. (German Monitor, 44) Amsterdam andAtlanta, GA:Rodopi I999 234pP £33 (paperbound£I3) Thisvolume contains an introduction, eleven essays, anda I996interview with Gunter de Bruyn. Bearing inmind that most readers ofsuchcollections do not normally wish toreadthe bookfrom cover tocover atonesitting, the editor istobe congratulated on a particularly clearandhelpful introduction which allows the reader tomake aninformed choice astowhich essays might bemost useful tohim onhiscurrent work onDe Bruyn. Theessays are:Martin KaneonDerHohlweg; MLR,96.3,200I 899 John White onBurzdans Esel;NigelHarris ondeBruyn's re-telling ofthemedieval Tristan legend; York-Gothart Mixon FreiAeitsberaubung andMarkische Forschungen; Andy Hollis onFrezheitsberaubung; Detlef Gwosc onAeue Herrlichkeit; LutzKubeonde Bruyn's construction and cultivation in hisessaysofa regional Brandenburg identity; J.H. Reidonparallels between thework ofde Bruyn andBoll;Renate Rechtien's comparative study ofde Bruyn's Zwzschenbilanz and Christa Wolf's Kindheitsmuster, OwenEvans' evaluation ofVierzig jrahre; andKarin Hirdina's analysis oftherelationship ofdeBruyn's autobiographical writings tohisfiction. According totheeditor itwasthevery mixed critical reception ofTAierzig Jahre (I996), the second volume ofdeBruyn's autobiography, which provided theimpetus, the'new perspective', for this collection ofessays. Inthese circumstances itisperhaps rather strange that only twooftheessays, those byEvansandHirdina, dealspecifically andatlength with Vierzig Xahre, while only a further two, those byKaneandReid, draw onVierzig jrahre toanysignificant extent. In terms ofcurrent teaching andresearch interests relating toGDR andpostWende studies there aretwo groups ofessays which areofparticular value. Thoseby Mix,Hollis, andGwosc concentrate onthe role oftheStasi inthe publishing history ofFreiAeitsberaubung, Markische Forschungen, andJ\/eue Herrlichkeit, casting newlight, often on thebasisoffresh archival material, on thedifficulties and pressures encountered notonly byde Bruyn inparticular, butbyGDR writers ingeneral. Rechtien, Evans,andHirdina chooseto focus on de Bruyn's autobiographical writings, examining them inthe context ofthecurrent discussions ofthe theory and practice ofautobiography, andespecially literary autobiography. Ofthese three, those byRechtien andHirdina arethemost stimulating andthought-provoking. Having compared thepositive critical welcome accorded todeBruyn's Zwischenbilanz (I992) with thenegative response toWolf'sWasbleibt? (I990) inpost-Wende Germany, Rechtien seeks a reason for this inthediXerent perceptions ofdeBruyn andWolfoftheir responsibilities as autobiographers and chroniclers. Rechtien chooses todemonstrate her casebycomparing deBruyn's Zwischenbilanz with Wolf's Kindheitsmuster (I976) becausethey bothdealwiththesameperiodofGerman history. Where EvansoXers a positive andsympathetic reading of Vierzig iahre, recommending itasa generally reliable chronicle ofthe life ofa writer intheGDR, Hirdina takes...