Memory Matters
Generational Responses to Germany's Nazi Past in Recent Women's Literature
Published on 27. August 2008
Book
Mixed media product
XIII, 345 pages
978-3-11-915988-3 (ISBN)
Description
Memory Matters juxtaposes in tripartite structure a close analysis of two texts that comprise memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, two that consider memories of the narrators' parents, and two concerned with the narrators' grandparents' past. Focusing on genealogies of women, the book examines the tensions between war and postwar generations against the backdrop of a complicated mother-daughter relationship. Linking memories of Nazi Germany to those of the Holocaust, Schaumann's approach questions the assumption that German-Gentile and German-Jewish postwar experiences are necessarily diametrically opposed.
Reviews / Votes
"Memory Matters constitutes a major contribution to a shift in critical discourses regarding (post)memories of Nazi Germany - one that carefully examines 'Memory contests' (Fuchs) in contemporary German literature while questioning familiar oppositions and assumptions established by previous generations of scholars and writers."Friederike Eigler in: Zeitschrift fur Deutsche Philologie 2/2010 "[...] the book is a valuable contribution to debates about the Holocaust, and Schaumann ensures through her very persuasively crafted discussion of new complexities and ambiguities that these debates are not mainstreamed and thus trivialized."Kamakshi P. Murti in: German Studies Review 1/2010 "Highly recommended."M. Shafi in: Choice 2/2009More details
Person
Caroline Schaumann, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.