Appropriated Memory
The Creation of a German Post-Memorial Literature
1st Edition
Published on 24. October 2025
262 pages
978-1-80374-704-0 (ISBN)
Description
Th¿is¿¿ b¿ook offers a survey of post-World War II German-language post-memorial writing.¿ An analysis¿ of¿ the books by¿ Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and Wolfgang Koeppen¿ e¿xposes the difficult path of German writing about the Holocaust. Koeppen's unauthorized ¿¿appropriation of Jakob Littner's survivor memoir serves as the frame for th¿is study,¿¿ ¿expos¿ing¿¿ ¿the difference¿s¿ between perpetrator and victim perspectives. The various attempts ¿by¿ the current generation¿ of authors¿ to bridge th¿is¿ ¿divide¿ ¿reflect¿ the renewed interest and changed attitude¿s¿ towards the Holocaust ¿that emerged ¿in Germany after ¿R¿eunification. Included in this volume are W. G. Sebald's imaginary dialogue between a victim and a perpetrator, Ursula Krechel's exploration of Jewish life in Shanghai from a Jewish perspective, Iris Hanika's presentation of the distraught mindset of a member of Germany's second perpetrator generation, and Kevin Vennemann's ¿narrative about¿ a Jewish child in¿ the midst of¿ a Polish massacre.
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09/2025
Peter Lang Verlag
€55.95
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Person
Reinhard Zachau is ¿Professor Emeritus at the University of the South¿. He has published a number of books, on Stefan Heym, Hans Fallada, Heinrich Böll, Berlin's Modernism, and on German film. Appropriated Memory originate¿d¿¿ ¿in the extensive media coverage that the author's discovery of Jakob Littner's Holocaust survivor memoir in 2000 received.
Content
Acknowledgments - Introduction Germans Writing about the Holocaust - Chapter 1 Perpetrator Writing before 1990 - Chapter 2 Appropriating a Victim Identity - Chapter 3 Jewish Memories - Chapter 4 Perpetrator Memoirs - Conclusion - Bibliography - Index
