German Jewish Literature After 1990

Agnes Mueller, Katja Garloff

The 1990 reunification of Germany gave rise to a new generation of writers who write in German, identify as both German and Jewish, and often also sustain cultural affiliations with places such as Russia, Azerbaijan, or Israel. This edited volume traces the development of this new literature into the present, offers fresh interpretations of individual works, and probes the very concept of "German Jewish literature." A central theme is the transformation ofmemory at a time when the Holocaust is moving into greater historical distance while the influx of new immigrant groups to Germany brings other past trauma into view. The volume's ten original essays by scholars from Europe and the U.S. reframe the debates about Holocaust memory and contemporary German culture. The concluding interviews with authors Mirna Funk and Olga Grjasnowa offer a glimpse into the future of German Jewish literature. Contributors: Luisa Banki, Caspar Battegay, Helen Finch, Mirna Funk, Katja Garloff, Olga Grjasnowa, Elizabeth Loentz, Andree Michaelis-König, Agnes Mueller, Jessica Ortner, Jonathan Skolnik, Stuart Taberner. Katja Garloff isProfessor of German and Humanities at Reed College. Agnes Mueller is the College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the University of South Carolina.

Introduction - Katja Garloff and Agnes MuellerPART I. SELF-REFLECTION in FIRST- and SECOND-GENERATION AUTHORSWhat Is a German Jewish Author? Authorial Self-Fashioning in Maxim Biller, Esther Dischereit, and Barbara Honigmann - Katja Garloff(Non-Jewish) German Constructions of (German) Jewish Writing in the Late Work of Günter Grass, Martin Walser, and Christa Wolf - Stuart TabernerRevenge, Restitution, Ressentiment: Edgar Hilsenrath's and Ruth Klüger's Late Writings as Holocaust Metatestimony - Helen FinchPART II. MULTIPLE IDENTITIES and DIVERSIFICATION of HOLOCAUST MEMORYThe German Jewish Migrant Novel after 1990: Politics of Memory and Multidirectional Writing - Jessica OrtnerBeyond Negative Symbiosis: The Displacement of Holocaust Trauma and Memory in Alina Bronksy's Scherbenpark and Olga Grjasnowa's Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt - Elizabeth LoentzMemory without Borders? Migrant Identity and the Legacy of the Holocaust in Olga Grjasnowa's Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt - Jonathan SkolnikMultilingualism and Jewishness in Katja Petrowskaja's Vielleicht Esther - Andree Michaelis-KönigPART III. NEW THEMES and DIRECTIONS in RECENT GERMAN JEWISH LITERATUREActuality and Historicity in Mirna Funk's Winternähe - Luisa BankiGerman Psycho: The Language of Depression in Oliver Polak's Der jüdische Patient - Caspar BattegayReligion and the Holocaust: Imre Kertész, Benjamin Stein, and Kaddish for a Friend - Agnes MuellerPART IV. CODA: INTERVIEWS with TWO CONTEMPORARY GERMAN JEWISH WRITERSInterview with Olga Grjasnowa - Katja Garloff and Agnes MuellerInterview with Mirna Funk - Katja Garloff and Agnes MuellerBibliographyNotes on the ContributorsIndex