German wolf children in fictional and documentary literature

Abstract

This article analyzes the way the so-called wolf children are pictured in fictional and documentary stories and how they are treated from the standpoint of literary ethics. Thus the paper aims to show how texts of different genres depict the situation of children in East Prussia and what effects these texts have on the reader. Even though the literature on catastrophes experienced in the preceding century has received major attention, there has not been comparable interest in the topic of wolf children, broader investigations of which began only in the period of Lithuanian independence. Here we take a look at Alvydas Šlepikas’s novel “Mano vardas – Marytė” (“My name is Marytė”, 2012) and the most recent work of emigrants: Jutta Noak’s novel “Raudonos pelytės” (“The red mice”, 2017) and the documentary book “Klyksmas vaiduoklių mieste. Vilko vaikai” (“Scream in a ghost town: Children of the wolf”). This topic is sensitive, it calls forth emotions, many of the depicted events and reactions have an ethical dimension, thus the chosen works are investigated by applying the most important criteria of literary ethics elucidating the relationship between writer, narrator, and reader and the effect of the text on the reader’s emotions. The article deals with the genre of biographical literature so important for analyzing the documentary book of S. Gronau which conveys the personal experiences of the author, a former wolf child. The hypothesis is that the works discussed reflect different aspects of the subject of wolf children and provoke different emotional reactions on the part of the reader. The fictional novels leave free room for the reader’s interpretation and feature a more interesting and attractive form of narration, as opposed to the documentary book which features conventional narration and leaves little room for the reader.