Anna Seghers in Perspective by Ian Wallace (review)

Abstract

(presumablybecause he came fromthe theatre),whereasBillyWilderdoes not even merit an entry (presumably because he worked solely in film). Such minor discrepanciesdo not alterthe fact that the handbook is a unique work of reference, which it is hoped will stimulatenew interestin this hitherto neglected area of exile research. UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH RICHARD DOVE Anna Seghers in Perspective.Ed. by IANWALLACE.(German Monitor, 43) Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi. 1998. 2 2 pp. $61 (paperbound $ 9). The reputation of Anna Seghers has taken something of a knock since the publication of Walter Janka's Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit in 1989, with its suggestion that Seghers did little to defendJanka when he became the victim of a show trial in July 1957. Hers is not the only reputation to suffersince the Wende. Christa Wolf's belated publication of an account relating her experience as the victim of Stasi surveillance(Wasbleibt), as well as discoveriesof her own Stasilinks, damaged her reputation, while, more recently, it was suggested that Stephan Hermlin had created for himself a spurious anti-fascistbiography (Karl Corino, AuJfen Marmor, InnenGips(Dusseldorf:Econ, 1996)). Given the tendency amongst some critics to instrumentalize such revelations in order to question not just the authors' integrity, but indeed their biography and literaryoeuvreas a whole, this recent volume on Seghers is more than welcome. It calls for a more differentiated evaluation of Seghers'sconduct in theJanka affair(in the detailed and informative articleby Ute Brandes),and, more importantly,strivesto open up a varietyof new perspectives on Seghers and thus expose monolithic interpretations and clear categorizationsas rashly oversimplified.In no sense is Anna Seghers a straightforward case of a 'socialist'writeror 'Staatsdichterin'.The refreshingslantsofferedon her work and life in the volume, partly based on newly available archive material (notably Christiane Zehl Romero's contribution on the Weiskopf-Seghers correspondence ), leave the reader with the impression that much that has been written about Seghershas been the product of East orWest Germanpoliticalinterests,and invite us to reconsider a number of issues. Martin Kane's essay, aptly titled 'Existentialism or Ideology', reveals Dostoevskyan elements in Seghers's early writingsand stressesthe priorityfor Seghersin these worksof artisticconcernsover anyideological considerations.He concludesbypointing out that Segherspreserved her artisticindependence despiteher communist affiliation,and that both Dassiebte Kreuz and Transit arefreeofideologicalconstraints.AnthonyWaine,inhisperceptive analysisof DerProzeJ3 derJeanned'Arc, outlines not only the alreadyfairlyestablished anti-fascistor feministreadings,but stressesthe importance of faith and spirituality in the work, its precisely inflected critique of the injustice of justice, and its highlightingof terroras an instrumentof repression.Mary Lyons drawsinteresting parallels between Kafka's writings, particularly Der Prozefiand Das Schlofi,and Seghers' Transit, revealingin Seghersa perhapssurprisinglyfundamentalKulturkritik and scepticism towards modernist concepts. Both Anthony Grenville in his investigationof 'Der Ausflugder toten Madchen' and Eoin Bourkein his analysisof 'Post ins Gelobte Land' foreground Seghers's literary preoccupation with the Holocaust, demonstratingthe falsityof claims that Seghersunder-representedthis theme in her work, or treatedit in a summaryand superficialmanner. Bourkealso mentions Die HochzeitvonHaiti, a work with a Jewish protagonist, and Sonja Hilzinger examines Seghers'Karibische Geschichten in her chapter.Ian Wallace,editor of this immaculately edited volume (I only found two typographic errors), also (presumablybecause he came fromthe theatre),whereasBillyWilderdoes not even merit an entry (presumably because he worked solely in film). Such minor discrepanciesdo not alterthe fact that the handbook is a unique work of reference, which it is hoped will stimulatenew interestin this hitherto neglected area of exile research. UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH RICHARD DOVE Anna Seghers in Perspective.Ed. by IANWALLACE.(German Monitor, 43) Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi. 1998. 2 2 pp. $61 (paperbound $ 9). The reputation of Anna Seghers has taken something of a knock since the publication of Walter Janka's Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit in 1989, with its suggestion that Seghers did little to defendJanka when he became the victim of a show trial in July 1957. Hers is not the only reputation to suffersince the Wende. Christa Wolf's belated publication of an account relating her experience as the victim of Stasi surveillance(Wasbleibt), as well as discoveriesof her own Stasilinks, damaged her reputation, while, more recently, it was suggested that Stephan Hermlin had created for himself a spurious anti-fascistbiography (Karl Corino, AuJfen Marmor, InnenGips(Dusseldorf:Econ, 1996)). Given...