
Writing the New Berlin
The German Capital in Post-Wall Literature
Katharina Gerstenberger(Author)
Camden House Inc (Publisher)
Published on 1. July 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
220 pages
978-1-57113-513-1 (ISBN)
Description
A study of the "patchwork imaginary" that is postwall Berlin fiction and its significance for the new Germany.
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 Dueckers and Ingo Schramm, German-Turkish authors Zafer Senocak and Yade Kara, and the Austrians Kathrin Roeggla 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.
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 Dueckers and Ingo Schramm, German-Turkish authors Zafer Senocak and Yade Kara, and the Austrians Kathrin Roeggla 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.
Reviews / Votes
Impressive, both in the scope of works analysed and in the variety of approaches employed.... Writing the New Berlin is both crucial and timely. * MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES * This is a useful volume which will be widely read. Gerstenberger writes engagingly and with ease, and she knows her material well. * JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES * For anyone with an interest in contemporary German literature, or in Berlin, ... Gerstenberger's study is a necessary starting point. * MONATSHEFTE * An extremely valuable contribution to scholarship about most recent German literature and Germans after unification. * FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES * A true gem for students and scholars who venture beyond the introduction to follow Gerstenberger's detailed analyses and thoughtful insights. * GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW * [Gerstenberger] indicates that the genuine fascination and value of the literature of the two decades after the Wende lies in the richness of its multi-faceted reflections of an extraordinary moment in the life of this remarkable city. * DEUTSCH: LEHREN UND LERNEN *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Columbia, MD
United States
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
368 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-57113-513-1 (9781571135131)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
07/2008
Camden House Inc
€112.85
Article exhausted; check different version

E-Book
07/2008
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download
Person
Katharina Gerstenberger is associate professor of German at the University of Cincinatti.
Content
Introduction: Newness and Its Discontents: Berlin Literature in the 1990s and Beyond
Erotic Sites: Sexual Topographies after the Wall
Bodies and Borders: The Monsters of Berlin
Multicultural Germans and Jews of Many Cultures:Imagining "Jewish Berlin"
Goodbye to East Berlin
Looking for Perspectives: The Construction at Potsdamer Platz
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Erotic Sites: Sexual Topographies after the Wall
Bodies and Borders: The Monsters of Berlin
Multicultural Germans and Jews of Many Cultures:Imagining "Jewish Berlin"
Goodbye to East Berlin
Looking for Perspectives: The Construction at Potsdamer Platz
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index