1968: Handbuch zur Kultur- und Mediengeschichte der Studentenbewegung by Martin Klimke, Joachim Scharloth

Abstract

272 Reviews realism and toconnect with thetraditions ofEuropean modernismin which theself appearedasdivided. InShifting Perspectives Tatedrawson recent genretheory toapproachas 'autobio graphical writing'abodyof writing whichscholars havefound surprisingly difficult tograspin itsbroaderpoliticaland aesthetic contours. The first partof thestudy tracesthehistorical development of autobiographical writingin theGDR. Here Wolfs 'Lesenund Schreiben'is thespringboard fora surveythatextendsfrom texts bornfrom writers'engagement inthe19405 withLukacs's theories of realism and subjectivism topost-unification transformations ofsubjective authenticity. The secondpartexamines how theprojectofautobiographical writingshapedthe work of five authors: Brigitte Reimann,FranzFuhmann, Stefan Heym,GunterdeBruyn, andChrista Wolf. What makes the study such a stimulating one is the variable focus that itbrings tobear on itssubject. Tate'snarrative, in thefirst part,of theshifting triangular relationships betweencultural policy in the GDR, literary debates,and therepre sentation ofsubjective experience testifies toa commanding breadth ofscholarship. In thesecond,thechapters exhibita finely tunedsensitivity to theunfolding en gagement of thechosen writers with subjective forms of literary expression and to thecomplexity of individual literary texts. While these chapters place theindividual writersincontext veryeffectively, theyalso offer a judiciousassessment of their legacy from a contemporary perspective thattakesinto accountthefresh versions of texts that haveappearedsinceunification and, whereappropriate, theauthors' own continuations ofor revisions totheir literary projects. Tate'sgrounding inan auto biographical criticism whichhas contested hard-and-fast generic boundariesalso makes thisa compellingly cohesivestudy. By approaching the materialinterms of autobiographical writing, Shifting Perspectives reframes central criticalissues which havesurrounded theliterature ofsubjective authenticity andunlocksnewperspec tives on them. This isawell-researched book that offers an important reassessment of its subject. Itwill be necessary reading for scholars ofGDR and post-unification culture (and for that reason a valuable library acquisition). It is lucidlywritten and shouldbe accessibletoadvancedundergraduate readerstoo. UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL ANDREW PLOWMAN 1968: HandbuchzurKultur-und Mediengeschichte derStudentenbewegung. Ed. by MARTINKLIMKEand JOACHIM SCHARLOTH. Stuttgart andWeimar:Metzler. 2007. vi+323 pp. C49.95. ISBN978-3-476-02066-6. The German Student Movement of the late 196os continues to provide a fertile groundforinterdisciplinary research. Deftlyjuxtaposing'traditional' approaches from history, sociology, politicalscience, andmemoryresearch with the'performa tive turn' in cultural studies,Martin Klimke and Joachim Scharloth argue that the '68er' movementcan be productively understoodthrough itsrepresentations and manifestations. By viewing it as a generator of new forms of expression and alter nativesemioticsystems that had a lasting effect on protest culture, lifestyles, and MLR, 104.1, 2009 273 attitudes, they openupnewavenues ofenquirythat promiseto make senseofa com plex web ofcountercultural practice, alternative valuesystems, and their interaction withmedia that simultaneously reflected andconstructed the movement'sidentity. Designed as a 'handbook', thevolumepresentstwenty-four essays,loosely gath eredaround theheadings 'MedienundOffentlichkeit', 'Performanz und Subver sion','Neuekulturelle Praktiken', 'Gewaltdiskurse', and 'Ruckblicke'. While varying inqualityand scope,eachessayprovidesan interesting aspector case study of the centraltheme, often with helpful photographs and always with a comprehensive bibliography forfurther study. In a contribution based on herground-breaking study Protest-Inszenierungen (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag,2002),KathrinFahlenbachpointsout thatthe GermanStudent Movementencountered a 'medienhistorische Schwellensituation' with thetransition from printtotelevision. Bothmediawere forced toadapttheir modes of reporting infavour ofvisualandemotional criteria, which inturninflu encedthe way the Student Movementorganized andchoreographed its protests. An 'expressiver Proteststil' was createdthatindicated socialdemarcation lines, helped topolarizeandmobilize protesters, and afforded themtheillusionof a 'Kollek tivkorper' (p.14).Thissharedexperience of the'Einheit vonDenken,Handelnund Fiihlen' was theutopianidealof the'Kommune i' in WestBerlin, whosemembers becamebothexpert manipulators andvictims ofthe media. Henning Marmulla'sessayon the Kursbuch rightly stresses the keyroleofthe pe riodical edited by HansMagnusEnzensberger that first appearedin1965andquickly becamethe'zentrale Zeitschrift' for activists andprovedfundamental fortheforma tionandmobilization of the68ers.Severaltimesthe Kursbuch providedthe'Stich worte'for the movement, be itthefocus on international movements (nos1i and13), theinvestigation intotheeventsaroundthekillingofBennoOhnesorgon 2 June 1967 (no.12),or itsfamous questioning of thesocialfunction ofliterature (no.21). Perhapsone of themost originaland instructive contributions comes from MereridPuwDavies,who researches theemphatic function ofgraffiti inthe move ment. While theslogans of1968inParishavebecome museumpieces,their German counterparts remained ephemeral, and survive onlyinbrief allusionsintheliterary representation of the era, e.g. inUwe Timm's Hei,3er Sommer. Davies argues that by reading graffiti in a book, we lose theirmost vital aspects: their radical, public character and their bold,activeintervention in theurbanenvironment. She reads thesurreal, challenging, andhumorous'Spruiche' bytheconcept artist Eiffe as a de velopment of theideasof the Situationist International anda response toalienation ina capitalist world. Joachim Scharloth views theescapadesof the Kommune i through thelensof performance theory. In their regular encounters with the WestBerlinlegalsystem, the 'celebrities' of theKi developeda highlyeffective arsenalof communicative strategies that would unmask/ridicule their opponents...