270 Reviews Bubisdebateisatonepointsituated in1989rather than1998),theessays gathered in this volumeprovidea helpfulintroduction tothe main issuesinthis growing field. UNIVERSITY OF KENT BEN HUTCHINSON Women without a Past?German Autobiographical Writings andFascism.By JOANNE SAYNER.(Genus,8)Amsterdam andNew York:Rodopi. 2007. 381pp. e78. ISBN 978-90-420-2228-7. Inherautobiography weiterleben(Gottingen: Wallstein,1992)RuthKliigerasserts, specifically with regardtowar and Fascism: 'Frauen habenkeineVergangenheit. Oder haben keine zu haben' (p. io). Joanne Sayner sets out to examine the truth of thisclaimby showingindetail the ways inwhich seven women'smemoriesof Fascismand the Holocaustwere constructed-andcontested-atdifferent histori cal times. While different genresare represented, all seventexts, inSayner's view, bothadheretoand subvert PhilippeLejeune's 'autobiographical pact'.Each auto biography iscoveredina separate chapter, while salientsimilarities aredrawnout regarding the nature and treatment ofthese works. All include competing narratives, 'often presenting opposingselvesaswell asmultipleothersintheir negotiations of thepast' (p.338).And byconsidering thesetexts withintherespective discursive frameworks of their publication(s), and readingthemasworksof literature rather than'Zeitdokumente', Saynerisable toshowhow their shapeand reception were subject notonlytoshifting notionsoffemininity and society, butalso to 'competing politics of remembering' (p. 2) in East and West Germany, and in the new Berlin Republic. Hilde Huppert'sstory of surviving Bergen-Belsen, forexample, was writtenin 1945 inPalestineand,afterinitialrejections bypublishersin IsraelandGermany, becamesubjecttocompeting frames ofpublication. First ArnoldZweig(GDR 1951), then Huppert'sson (Israel1978,FRG 1988) chosenew titles, and framed and tai loredthetext accordingtotheir positionintherespective contemporary discourses on Fascism and theHolocaust. Or takeDie Wei,3e Rose (FRG 1952), inwhich Inge Schollusesmultiplevoicestointerlink herown life story with that of the murdered Resistancefighters and thusproblematize the 'dichotomy ofacceptance versusre sistance'(p. 87). Thebook underwentseveralalterations to reflect thechanging discourse on the group,thereby exemplifying thetheory 'that memoriesaresocially constructed, and as such,inherently fluid'(p.116). ElisabethLanggasser'sletters were first editedbyherwidower (FRG 1954) and later byhergranddaughter (1990).Both see a supposedlyfemalespontaneity and naturalness in theletters, whichSaynerrightly disputes. Thehusbandstresses her Catholicism whiledownplaying herJewishness andherrelationship toherdaughter Cordelia.Her granddaughter's edition, bycontrast, emphasizes herJewishness and isshapedbythepublicreception ofCordelia'sautobiography of1986. The onlyautobiography by a perpetrator that Saynerincludesis MelitaMasch mann's Fazit:Kein Rechtfertigungsversuch (FRG 1963).Despite itstitle,it is full MLR, 104.1, 2009 271 of justificatory rhetoric andputsforward a gendered narrative ofcollective decep tionratherthanan acknowledgement of individualresponsibility. Althoughthe reception of the bookwasmixed, it was largely taken atface value. InGretaKuckhoff's Vom Rosenkranz zurRoten Kapelle(GDR 1973)an individual lifeisagain intertwined with that ofa (notonlyCatholic)group.By stressing the significance ofhithertolittle-acknowledged anti-Fascist constituencies (including Jewish ones),Kuckhoff addressescontested narratives about resistance and chal lengesthe hierarchy ofremembrance inthe GDR. Undauj3erdem war esmeinLeben (1994) isreadasElfriede Briuning's attempt to reassert herEastGerman identity 'ina postunification society'(p.249)bybasingit onpersonal memoriesofanti-Fascism. However,itprovestobe thesiteof multiple tensions, wherebydifferent identities surface atdifferent points-as shownin the changeofsubtitles. Unlikemany others, Saynerdoes not regard Grete Weil's Leb ichdenn,wenn andereleben(1998) as 'lessliterary' than Weil's fictional works.By incorporating three different dialogicalgenres withinone text, Weil 'encapsulates awayofremem beringthat emphasizes reciprocity' (p.382) anddeliberately 'destabilizes the binary constellation ofJews andGermans',subordinating these crudeidentities underthe markofgender(pp.313-14). Though moremighthavebeen done todisguisethebook's originsas a Ph.D. thesisand to remove certainstylistic mannerisms, Sayner'sbook impresses with itsclose textual readings and stringent argumentation. I believethatthrough and beyond itsconcentration onwomen thisisan important investigation intopub licreflections ofguilt, victimhood, responsibility, and identity in theaftermath of Germany's Fascistpast. QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ASTRID KOHLER ShiftingPerspectives: East German Autobiographical Narratives before and after the End of the GDR. ByDENNISTATE. (StudiesinGermanLiterature, Linguis ticsandCulture)Rochester, NY: CamdenHouse. 2007. viii+267 pp. ?45. ISBN 978-1-57113-372-4. In the wakeofChrista Wolf s 1968essay'Lesen undSchreiben','subjective authen ticity' established itself as thefavoured term for oneofthe mostdistinctive currents inGDR literature. Dennis Tatedescribesthisinhis study ofEastGermanautobio graphical narratives as a 'steady stream ofprose workslocatedinthe ambiguous area betweenfirst-person fiction and autobiography that havebeenpublishedbetween the 196os and thepresent day by two generations of authors' (p. 2).What continues torenderthese narratives so intriguing isnotonlythattheliterary representation of subjectivity provided writers with ameans to reflect upon theclaimsofGDR Socialismand upon their own biographies, which bore theimprint ofNational Socialism.Subjectiveauthenticity also, as Tate notes,became a centralaesthetic term forauthors seeking to steer a path between the terms of critical and Socialist ...