Writers and Politics in Germany, 1945–2008 by Stuart Parkes

Abstract

MLR, 105.3, 2010 917 Writers and Politics in Germany, 1945-2008. By Stuart Parkes. (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics and Culture) Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2009. x+239 pp. ?35; $65. ISBN 978-1-57113-401-1. Stuart Parkes's Writers and Politics in West Germany (London: Croom Helm, 1986) is remembered by a generation of scholars, including the author of this review, as an invaluable introduction to literary engagement in West Germany. The present volume, Writers and Politics inGermany, 1945-2008, updates the earlier work to include a consideration of writing and politics in the GDR and the post-1990 period inunited Germany. This book toowill no doubt be an important source for undergraduates, postgraduates at thebeginning of their independent research, and established colleagues wishing to refresh their knowledge of the period and of the keymoments when German writers intervened, either in their fiction or in essays, speeches, or forms of direct action, in the social, political, and historical debates of their day. The structure of thebook will be familiar to expert readers. The conflict between Geist and Macht inGerman letters is set out in a brief introduction, with quota tions fromGoethe, Schiller, Holderlin, and Heinrich Mann framing the historical tension between writers and the German states inwhich theywrote. Following this, there are chapters on the immediate aftermath of the Second World War; the 'restoration' of the 1950s; political protest in the 1960s; the new subjectivity' of the 1970s?with a brief interlude on writers and politics at the height of the student movement?then postmodernism in the 1980s; writers and unification; writing and politics in east and west after 1990; the emergence of new perspectives on theNazi past, including the emphasis on 'Germans as victims'; and a final chapter which asks whether there has been a 'swing to the right' in contemporary literary engagement. There is a surprising amount of detail in a book of littlemore than 200 pages, and Parkes is skilled in condensing broad trends and key issues into short, diges tible paragraphs with apt and illuminating examples. For undergraduates and new postgraduates inparticular, this volume will provide much of the background they need inorder to grasp the period. The brief introduction to the history and politics of a given decade which begins each chapter is especially useful, as are the broad outlines Parkes provides of literarydevelopments: major political moments and the response of key authors are sketched out in a helpful and lucid fashion. There are of course a number of possible critiques of Parkes's approach. The focus on politics and writing excludes significant trends in post-war German-language writing (for example, writing by ethnic-minority writers, orwriting which focuses less on politics and more on aesthetic questions or 'human nature'). But that isnot the book which Parkes set out towrite. More pertinently, the periodization may provoke some discomfort, as texts and trends are grouped rather too neatly into decades. The work ofMartin Walser, for example, might resist such an emphat ically 'political' periodization, structured around changes of government and key political events, as elements of his work (such as his engagement with memory and 9i8 Reviews subjectivity) stretch over fiftyyears. The pace at which Parkes proceeds, linking literary textsdirectly to political moments, may occasionally make his analysis feel a little superficial. All in all, however, this book ishighly readable and informative and is a welcome update of the author's previous monograph. University of Leeds Stuart Taberner Holderlin after theCatastrophe: Heidegger ? Adorno ? Brecht. By Robert Savage. (Studies inGerman Literature, Linguistics and Culture) Rochester, NY: Cam den House. 2008. xvi+234pp. ?40; $75. ISBN 978-1-57113-320-5. This study focuses on the reception ofHolderlin as an ideal example of post-war German poetry problems, since Holderlin had to such an extent been incorporated in the officialNazi ideology. The introduction provides thenecessary background forunderstanding the com plexity of the role Holderlin was to play inGermany after 1945. His first modern editor,Norbert von Hellingrath, had furnished an influential interpretation of the poet as the incarnation of purity?an apolitical myth eagerly taken up by the Stefan George circle. The distortion of thismyth by theHolderlin Society (founded by Goebbels in 1943) in...