Post-Fascist Spaces of Narration in Uwe Johnson's Works

Abstract

This article traces how Uwe Johnson develops a historiographical model that recognizes the centrality of the Holocaust not only for Germany but also for the victims of Nazi terror. His thought reveals strong affinities with that of his friend Hannah Arendt, who argues for history writing that self-consciously opposes the logic of fascism. Like Arendt, Johnson tries to open a space where autonomous individuals relate their unique experiences. Representative individuals are for Arendt those who see history from this array of perspectives, thereby creating a common object of understanding. In Johnson's Das dritte Buch über Achim, the efforts to write Achim's biography fail because his socialization during the Third Reich prevents him from seeing his past from the perspective of his Jewish girlfriend in the 1930s. In Jahrestage, however, Gesine Cresspahl tries to write the history of Germany and her family through dialogical exchanges with Germans and Jewish Holocaust survivors.