German Jewish Literature after 1990

Edited volume tracing the development of a new generation of German Jewish writers, offering fresh interpretations of individual works, and probing the very concept of "German Jewish literature."

Edited volume tracing the development of a new generation of German Jewish writers, offering fresh interpretations of individual works, and probing the very concept of "German Jewish literature."



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 US 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 is Professor 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 Mueller
PART I. SELF-REFLECTION in FIRST- and SECOND-GENERATION AUTHORS
What 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 Taberner
Revenge, RestitutionRessentiment: Edgar Hilsenrath's and Ruth Klüger's Late Writings as Holocaust Metatestimony - Helen Finch
PART II. MULTIPLE IDENTITIES and DIVERSIFICATION of HOLOCAUST MEMORY
The German Jewish Migrant Novel after 1990: Politics of Memory and Multidirectional Writing - Jessica Ortner
Beyond Negative Symbiosis: The Displacement of Holocaust Trauma and Memory in Alina Bronksy'sScherbenpark and Olga Grjasnowa'sDer Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt - Elizabeth Loentz
Memory without Borders? Migrant Identity and the Legacy of the Holocaust in Olga Grjasnowa'sDer Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt - Jonathan Skolnik
Multilingualism and Jewishness in Katja Petrowskaja'sVielleicht Esther - Andree Michaelis-König
PART III. NEW THEMES and DIRECTIONS in RECENT GERMAN JEWISH LITERATURE
Actuality and Historicity in Mirna Funk'sWinternähe - Luisa Banki
German Psycho: The Language of Depression in Oliver Polak'sDer jüdische Patient - Caspar Battegay
Religion and the Holocaust: Imre Kertész, Benjamin Stein, andKaddish for a Friend - Agnes Mueller
PART IV. CODA: INTERVIEWS with TWO CONTEMPORARY GERMAN JEWISH WRITERS
Interview with Olga Grjasnowa - Katja Garloff and Agnes Mueller
Interview with Mirna Funk - Katja Garloff and Agnes Mueller
Bibliography
Notes on the Contributors
Index