Reden vom Ende: Studien zur kulturellen Selbstbeschreibung in der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur by Edgar Platen

Abstract

MLR, 104.1, 2009 283 Clearlythis volumepresents a variety ofviewsonReinhardJirgl, and itraisesas manyquestionsas itanswers. Indoingso,however, it provides uswithnewanden lightening analyses ofJirgl's texts, someof whicharesignificant inpointing towards optimistic elements withintheoft-noted pessimism ofhiswork.Thispublication offers essentialinsight intoJirgl's work,both thematically and structurally, and is highlyrecommended toall thoseinterested in thefield ofcontemporary German literature. BANGORUNIVERSITY ANNA SAUNDERS RedenvomEnde:Studien zurkulturellen Selbstbeschreibung inderdeutschen Gegen wartsliteratur. By EDGAR PLATEN. Munich: iudicium. 2006. 196 pp. ?20. ISBN 978-3-89129-925-8. EdgarPlatenisanexpert on all things liminal, aswellasbeingresponsible for a four volumeseries entitled'Darstellung vonZeitgeschichte indeutschsprachiger Gegen wartsliteratur' (Munich:iudicium, 2000-07). InRedenvom Endehe turns hisatten tiontoaparticular kindof,andqualityin, boundaries. And theexamples headduces arebyReinhard Lettau, Gunter Grass,KatjaLange-Muller, andGerhard Knopf Inhis invaluable'Vorbemerkung' hebrings hisownwise transnational perspec tivetobearon theterminal rhetoric sobelovedofcommentators on contemporary German literature.He is able to show that the rhyme of 'Ende' and 'Wende' is a merelylocalphenomenon, andonemoreoverthatisnot restricted totheevents of 1989and following. Themuch-vaunted'endofhistory'isseen inall itshistorical contingency and reimagined forthe German contextas a leave-taking fromthe generation of theeyewitnesses; a jostling for control overdiscourse;a disaffection withperiodization andwith standard assumptions about therelationship between politicsand culture; and a gradualtransition ofa relatively familiar (anddecidedly anti-apocalyptic) kind.Ina similar vein,the plethora ofaftermaths sooften evoked inour fortuitously millenariancontextiseffectively reducedto twofigures whose long pedigrees areproperly stressed: thesimulacrum and the hybrid. The texts singled outfor specialstudy havebeencarefully chosentoexemplify and amplify thepoints made in theintroduction. Lettau'sZur FragederHimmelsrich tungen, datingsignificantly from 1988,demonstrates theabsurdity ofanyrhetoric predicated on a distinction between East andWest, andwith itthe ColdWar, the Wende, and thatversion of history ofwhich Francis Fukuyama posited the putative end. The laterwork of Gunter Grass is seen as valetudinarian not only in a way appropriate to the generation of fathers and grandfathers, but also in a broader politicalandaesthetic sense. ZungezeigenandTotes Holz areshowntobeprogram maticallyhybrid, enactinga silence which iscompounded of theineffable and the unspeakable. With Grass,moreover, Platenintroduces a form of finality oddlynot theorized inhis introduction: thegradualor threatened destruction byhumanity of itshabitat and its future through pollution or nuclear fallout. Lange-Muller's Die Letzten, setinanEastGermanprintworks, articulates both Norbert Bolz's 'Ende der 284 Reviews Gutenberg-Galaxis' andan 'Abschied vonderDDR', butalso a lossoffixed identities underglobalization and thecontingency of textitself. And finally Knopfs Piranesis Traumfittingly etches outfor us the endofendingsinaworldofimagined simulacra. Platen,though, neverreducesthesetexts tothestatus ofmere examples.Instead he analysesthem on their own terms, evenat therisk ofoccasionallyseemingto losesight ofhisnarrower end.Hence this book canbe recommended notonlyto thoseintrigued by itsculture-historical theme, but also to those with a particular interest inanyor allof theauthors discussed. QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ROBERT GILLETT Briickenschlage: DDR-Autorenvorund nachderWiedervereinigung. ByASTRID KOHLER. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck& Ruprecht. 2007. 255 PP. ?29.90. ISBN 978-3-525-20853-3. This isa study that has taken Wolfgang Emmerich's plea forthe'Wahrnehmung von DDR-Literatur alsLiteratur'(Kleine Literaturgeschichte derDDR (Leipzig: Kiepen heuer,1996),P. 27) toheart. A volumeexploring prose texts pennedbothbefore and after theWende by seven of theGDR's more 'unbequem[ ]' (p. lo) authors, it rejects a politically situated reading of their work infavour ofone premissed upon theautonomy ofaesthetic endeavour. The resultisa studythatestablishes literary continuities whichKohlerclaimsbridgeanysocio-political changesthatthereader may associate with the demise of theGDR. Be it the questions thather authors ask, or thenarrative strategies they use,Bruickenschlage positions GDR writersas agents inanongoing'Gesamtwerk' (p.17),boththeir ownand that ofGDR literature more broadly. As thetitle of the volumeindicates, theauthors consideredinthisstudy(Christa Wolf,Klaus Schlesinger, UlrichPlenzdorf, Irina Liebmann, Christoph Hein,Angela Krauss,andKerstin Hensel)may havebegun their publishing careersduringthe lifetime of the GDR, but they have,inaddition,foundsuccess withinunified Ger many.Thevolumeisstructured chronologically (accordingtoageofauthor ordate offirst publication), witheachchapter also offering 'Langsschnitte' (p. 16) through thework of each writer. Given the biographies of several of the study's authors, a number ofthechapters have muchgroundtocover.In thecaseof Wolf,for example, almostthirty years of writing published duringthe GDR, together with twelve years ofpost-Wende work,aredealtwith infewer thanthirty pages.Thus,althoughthe volume'sscope is impressive, somepreparatory reading may be necessaryforthe readerlessfamiliar with thetexts orauthors considered. In summarizing thevolume'sfindings, twokeydynamicsemerge:at a chapter level, Kohler identifies what she terms the'wiederkehrend[e] AblaufeundGrund strukturen' (p.213) that bind thepre-andpost-Wende workofherauthors. Texts arepositionedas linked, forexample, by recurring thematic preoccupations(e.g. Hein's 'Zivilisationskritik' (p.214)); bycharacterization (e.g.Plenzdorf...