E-Book Overview
This collection of fifteen essays by scholars from the UK, the US, Germany, and Scandinavia revisits the question of German identity. Unlike previous books on this topic, however, the focus is not exclusively on national identity in the aftermath of Hitler. Instead, the concentration is upon the plurality of ethnic, sexual, political, geographical, and cultural identities in modern Germany, and on their often fragmentary nature as the country struggles with the challenges of unification and international developments such as globalization, multiculturalism, and postmodernism. The multifaceted nature of German identity demands a variety of approaches: thus the essays are interdisciplinary, drawing upon historical, sociological, and literary sources. They are organized with reference to three distinct sections: Berlin, Political Formations, and Difference; yet at the same time they illuminate one another across the volume, offering a nuanced understanding of the complex question of identity in today's Germany. Topics include the new self-understanding of the Berlin Republic, Berlin as a public showcase, the Berlin architecture debate, the Walser-Bubis debate, fictions of German history and the end of the GDR, the impact of the German student movement on the FRG, Prime Minister Biedenkopf and the myth of Saxon identity, women in post-1989 Germany, trains as symbols and the function of the foreign in post-1989 fiction, identity construction among Turks in Germany and Turkish self-representation in post-1989 fiction, the state of German literature today. Contributors: Frank Brunssen, Ulrike Zitzlsperger Janet Stewart, Kathrin Sch?del, Karen Leeder, Ingo Cornils, Peter Thompson, Chris Szejnmann, Sabine Lang, Simon Ward, Roswitha Skare, Eva Kolinsky, Margaret Littler, Katharina Gerstenberger, and Stuart Parkes.
E-Book Content
Recasting German Identity
Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture Edited by James Hardin (South Carolina)
Recasting German Identity Culture, Politics, and Literature in the Berlin Republic
Edited by Stuart Taberner and Frank Finlay
Camden House
Copyright © 2002 the Editors and Contributors All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. First published 2002 by Camden House Camden House is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604–4126 USA and of Boydell & Brewer Limited PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK ISBN: 1–57113–244–9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Recasting German identity: culture, politics, and literature in the Berlin Republic / edited by Stuart Taberner and Frank Finlay. p. cm. — (Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–57113–244–9 (alk. paper) 1. Germany — Intellectual life — 20th century. 2. Germany — Ethnic relations. 3. National characteristics, German. 4. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) — Psychological aspects. 5. German literature — 20th century — History and criticism — 20th century. I. Taberner, Stuart. II. Finlay, Frank. III. Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture (Unnumbered) DD239 .R43 2002 305.8'00943—dc21 2002019454 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. This publication is printed on acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America
Contents Acknowledgements
vii
Introduction
1
Stuart Taberner
Berlin The New Self-Understanding of the Berlin Republic: Readings of Contemporary German History
19
Frank Brunssen
Filling the