Writing the New Berlin: The German Capital in Post-Wall Literature (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics and Culture) by Katharina Gerstenberger

Abstract

608 Reviews Writing the New Berlin: The German Capital inPost-Wall Literature. By Katharina Gerstenberger. (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics and Culture) Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2008. x+209 pp. ?40. ISBN 978-1-57113 381-6. Writing theNew Berlin is impressive, both in the scope ofworks analysed and in the variety of approaches employed. It is a study defined by the lack of a single, definitive post-wall Berlin novel, although Katharina Gerstenberger claims there is a patchwork body of about three hundred texts' (p. 1) about Berlin. Her aim, however, is not to establish a post-wall 'Berlin canon'. Rather, her objective is twofold: first,'to capture thevariety of literary responses to a changing Berlin', and second, 'toanalyze the political and aesthetic stakes' present in these literaryworks (p. 1). The questions Gerstenberger asks are as diverse as the texts she studies; they range fromGerman identity, to the impact and ethics of globalization in post-wall Germany, to postmodernity and the ever-present spectre ofmodern German his tory.Throughout, Gerstenberger takes into consideration generational shifts and alterations in the traditional role of literature inGermany as the conscience of the nation. Gerstenberger addresses these core issues through five thematically distinct chapters. Some of them, such as 'Goodbye toEast Berlin' and 'Looking forPerspec tives:The Construction at Potsdamer Platz', may seem almost obligatory to anyone even passingly familiar with recent Berlin scholarship. Despite a clear attempt to formulate new questions within the context of familiar (and admittedly important) debates, Gerstenberger occasionally retreads old ground. Her conceptualization of East Berlin as a gendered space (pp. 129-33) iswell executed, but 'Remembering the Berlin Wall' (pp. 124-29) is less so. Gerstenberger makes astute observations about individual texts in this section, but fails to draw new conclusions about the broader theoretical debate. Other chapters, however, such as 'Bodies and Borders: The Monsters of Berlin', demonstrate creative and nuanced theoretical analysis. This chapter 'explores the significance of the numerous references in literature, the visual arts, and scholarly essays to the pathological specimens on display in [. . .] theCharite' (p. 52). The connections Gerstenberger makes between the deformed bodies on display and the persistent question ofGerman 'normalcy' invoke a long interpretative history of the city 'mirroring' the human body. She argues persua sively that 'questions of normalcy and pathology [...] are of central significance to the dialogic process through which artists sought to understand post-wall Berlin' (pp. 71-72). The book's remaining two chapters, 'Erotic Sites: Sexual Topographies after the Wall' and 'Multicultural Germans and JewsofMany Cultures: Imagining "Jewish Berlin", while not quite as excitingly original as 'Bodies and Borders', are very comprehensive and will be a useful resource for anyone interested in Berlin scholarship. Writing the New Berlin isboth crucial and timely,as the fieldofGerman Studies approaches the end of its second post-wall decade. However, the study's conclusion is notably weaker than the bulk of its analysis. Perhaps thiswas inevitable, given MLR, 105.2, 2010 609 the study's scope and the fact thatBerlin and itsplace in theGerman literary ima gination remain in flux. Questions can only be raised, not definitively answered, and Gerstenbergers analysis is at its best when she is raising genuinely original questions, rather than attempting to contribute to long-standing debates. San Francisco Stacy Hartman Schreiben nach der Wende? Wende im Schreiben? Literarische Reflexionen nach 1989/90. By Kerstin E. Reimann. (Epistemata Literaturwissenschaft, 565) Wiirzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann. 2008. 337 pp. 39.80. ISBN 978-3 8260-3312-4. This illuminating monograph examines theways inwhich the historical and social upheavals brought about by the fallof theBerlinWall are reflected in thewriting of authors from the formerGDR between 1990 and 1995. The title's play on the dual meaning of the term 'die Wende' (signifyingGerman unification as well as amore abstract turning-point), also neatly signals the study's concern with pinpointing differentphases, or 'turns', in post-1989 writing. Kerstin Reimann identifies two distinct waves of literary production follow ing the collapse of East Germany, which are punctuated by the 1990 controversy surrounding Christa Wolfs Was bleibt. Chapter 3 explores the first wave of'biogra phisches Schreiben' (p. 125) immediately after the fall of thewall, including diaries, autobiographies, and 'Protokoll-Literatur'?a...