Kempowski's War

Abstract

This article reads Walter Kempowski's Das Echolot as an instance of war writing. By analyzing the connection between Kempowski's portrayal of war and the main formal devices and ethical dimensions of Das Echolot, this essay posits Kempowski's groundbreaking work as a response to the challenge to language and representation posed by the Second World War as it was fought on the Eastern Front—a battleground that saw the intertwining of absolute war and total war. Specifically, I attempt to demonstrate that Das Echolot is both a formal refraction of total war and an ethical reversal of absolute war. Kempowski's opus magnum formally internalizes the structure of total war in order to cancel out the deadly notion of the “other” implied in absolute war. Ultimately, this essay seeks to reveal the radicalism, originality, and historical importance of Kempowski's writing of war.