Detectives, Dystopias, and Poplit

The first broad treatment of German genre fiction, containing innovative new essays on a variety of genres and foregrounding concerns of gender, environmentalism, and memory.

The first broad treatment of German genre fiction, containing innovative new essays on a variety of genres and foregrounding concerns of gender, environmentalism, and memory.


Some of the most exciting research and teaching in the field of German Studies is being done on "genre fiction," including detective fiction, science fiction, and what is often called "poplit," to name but a few. Such non-canonical literature has long been marginalized by the German tradition ofBildung and the disciplinary practice of German literary studies (Germanistik). Even today, when the examination of non-canonical texts is well established and uncontroversial in other academic contexts, such texts remain understudied in German. And yet, the trend toward "German Studies" and "cultural studies" approaches within the field has raised considerable interest in theanalysis of genre fiction, resulting in both a great deal of new scholarship and a range of new courses. This first broad treatment of German genre fiction brings together innovative new scholarship, foregrounding themes of gender, environmentalism, and memory. It is an ideal companion to research and teaching. Written in accessible English, it speaks to a wide variety of disciplines beyond German Studies.

Contributors: Bruce B. Campbell, Ray Canoy, Kerry Dunne, Sonja Fritzsche, Maureen O. Gallagher, Adam R. King, Molly Knight, Vibeke Rützou Petersen, Evan Torner, and Ailsa Wallace.

Bruce B. Campbell is Associate Professor of German Studies at the College ofWilliam and Mary. Alison Guenther-Pal is Assistant Professor of German and Film Studies at Lawrence University. Vibeke Rützou Petersen is Professor Emerita of Women's Studies at Drake University.

Introduction: Closing aBildungslücke - Genre Fiction and Why It Is Important
German Science Fiction: Its Formative Works and Its Postwar Uses of the Holocaust
A Future History Out of Time: The Historical Context of Döblin's Expressionist Dystopian ExperimentBerge Meere und Giganten
Eco-Eschbach: Sustainability in the Science Fiction of Andreas Eschbach
Murder in the Weimar Republic: Prejudice, Politics, and the Popular in the Socialist Crime Fiction of Hermynia Zur Mühlen
The Imaginary FBI: Jerry Cotton, the Nazi Roots of theBundeskriminalamt, and the Cultural Politics of Detective Fiction in West Germany
Justice and Genre: TheKrimi as a Site of Memory in Contemporary Germany
Detecting Identity: Reading the Clues in German-Language Crime Fiction by Klüpfel and Kobr and Steinfest
The Pedagogy of Pulp: Liberated Sexuality and Its Consequences Through the Eyes of Vicki Baum'sstud. chem. Helene Willfüer
TheKränzchen Library and the Creation of Teenage Identity
Close the Border, Mind the Gap: Pop Misogyny and Social Critique in Christian Kracht'sFaserland
Bibliography
Notes on the Contributors
Index