German Memory Contests: The Quest for Identity in Literature, Film, and Discourse since 1990

Abstract

Since unification in 1990, and particularly since the late 90s, Germany has seen a boom in the confrontation with memory, evident in the sharp increase in novels, films, autobiographies, and other forms of public discourse that engage with the long-term effects of National Socialism across generations. Taking issue with the concept of Vergangenheitsbewaltigung, or coming to terms with the National Socialist past, which after 1945 guided nearly all debate on the topic, the contributors to this volume view contemporary German culture through the more dynamic concept of contests, which provides a circumspect view of German debates on the past, departing, as have recent German debates, from the tone of censorship that has so often accompanied these discussions. Instead, the idea of memory contests posits that all forms of memory, public or private, can be understood as ongoing processes of negotiating identity in the present. The idea also captures the intergenerational dynamic of the ongoing confrontation with memory in Germany today.Touching on gender, generations, memory and postmemory, trauma theory, ethnicity, historiography, and family narrative alongside many other topics, the contributions provide a comprehensive picture of current German memory debates, in so doing shedding light on the struggle to construct a German identity mindful of but not wholly defined by the horrors of National Socialism and the Holocaust. The volume will appeal to readers with a wide variety of academic interests, including cultural history, gender studies, film, and contemporary German literature. Anne Fuchs is professor of Modern German Literature and Georg Grote is lecturer in German History, both at University College Dublin. Mary Cosgrove is lecturer in German at the University of Edinburgh.