Inscription and Rebellion: Illness and the Symptomatic Body in East German Literature by Sonja E. Klocke

Abstract

Reviewed by: Inscription and Rebellion: Illness and the Symptomatic Body in East German Literature by Sonja E. Klocke Regine Criser Inscription and Rebellion: Illness and the Symptomatic Body in East German Literature. By Sonja E. Klocke. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015. Pp. 248. Cloth $80.00. ISBN 978-1571139337. The rapid process of the German unification was underwritten with a general dismissal or disapproval shared by the majority of West and East Germans alike of anything related to the German Democratic Republic (GDR). While East Germans were busy adjusting to new money, new laws, and new interpretations of their past, the unification manifested in the restructuring of East German public life. In many instances that meant the replacement of GDR structures, systems, and personnel with models and people from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Only much later did the realization set in that some aspects of GDR society might have been deserving of a more thoughtful analysis and maybe even of survival. In her exemplary work in German studies, Sonja Klocke turns her attention to one of these subjects, the GDR medical system, and connects her thorough analysis of it with historically contextualized close readings of Christa Wolf's oeuvre. Klocke treats both the medical institutions and Wolf's literary production as GDR microcosmoses. She argues that a more nuanced understanding of each can lead to a more complex comprehension of German history that could challenge hegemonic historiographies by providing a space for the alternative accounts of the GDR as developed in literary texts and medical records. Klocke's analysis of the GDR's medical system is detailed and balanced. She effectively and insightfully explains the particular function of healthy citizens in a socialist state and how that ideology was implemented in a centrally planned economy dominated by resource shortfalls. More importantly, she engages in depth with the representation of illness, sickness, and health care facilities in Wolf's writings, using Foucault's concept of the "symptomatic body" as her analytic framework. Her close readings showcase how Wolf constructed and employed her characters' ailing bodies to uphold or protest political and social norms and expectations. The GDR's health care system has so far attracted little attention in the realm of German studies and has often been limited to one chapter in more complex historical overviews of German history, for example in Mary Fulbrook's The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker (2005). By contrast, Klocke interweaves medical history and literary scholarship throughout the four chapters of the book, which exemplifies the intersections she claims exist between both discourses, especially in the GDR. Her in-depth description of the GDR's medical system not only expands the existing understanding of the system's particularities, downfalls, and advantages, but her concise and jargon-free style also makes this crucial aspect of East German society accessible to an audience beyond GDR scholars and makes her book an attractive option for graduate courses. [End Page 684] The same can be said about her close readings of Wolf's oeuvre. While there has been scholarship on the female body as well as on illness in Wolf's writings (see for example Carol Anne Costabile-Heming's "Illness as Metaphor: Christa Wolf, the GDR, and Beyond," 2010), Klocke expands this research by pinpointing illness as a recurring motif in Wolf's writings before and after the collapse of the GDR. She argues that the use of the "symptomatic body" must be understood as a literary convention that is shaped by but not limited to the socialist state. Her intimate and encyclopedic knowledge of Wolf's oeuvre is apparent, and even scholars with detailed knowledge of Wolf's writings will discover new sources as well as encounter familiar texts in a new light. While all of this would already make for an outstanding contribution to the field of German studies, particularly the study of GDR history and culture, Klocke's monograph does not stop here. Rather, she extends her analysis to writers who grew up in the GDR but mainly started publishing after 1989 and draws out the specters of the GDR in their texts. Even though Klocke investigates well-known...