"In the debates since 1945 on German history and culture, the concept of generations has become ever more prominent. Recent and ongoing shifts in how the various generations are seen -- and see themselves -- in relation to history and to each other have taken on key importance in contemporary German cultural studies. The seismic events of twentieth-century German history are no longer solely first-generational lived experiences but are also historical moments seen through the eyes of successor generations. The generation, seen as a category of memory, thus holds a key to major shifts in German identity. The changing generational perspectives of German writers and filmmakers not only reflect but also influence these trends, exposing both the expected differences between generational views and unexpected continuities. Moreover, as younger artists reframe recent history, older generations like the 1968ers are also contributing to these shifts by reassessing their own experiences and cultural contributions. This volume of new essays applies current discourse on generations in German culture to contemporary works dealing with major sociohistorical events since the Nazi period"--Publisher's website.
Contributors: Svea Bräunert, Laurel Cohen-Pfister, Friederike Eigler, Thomas C. Fox, Katharina Gerstenberger, Erin McGlothlin, Brad Prager, Ilka Rasch, Susanne Rinner, Caroline Schaumann, Maria Stehle, Reinhild Steingröver, Susanne Vees-Gulani.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Generations and German-Jewish writing: Maxim Biller's representation of German-Jewish love from "Harlem holocaust" to Liebe heute / Erin McGlothin -- Between reevaluation and repetition: Ulla Hahn's Unscharfe Bilder and the lasting influence of family conflicts about the Nazi past in current literature of the 1968 generation / Susanne Vees-Gulani -- Beyond the victims debate: flight and expulsion in recent novels by authors from the second and third generation (Christoph Hein, Reinhard Jirgl, Kathrin Schmidt, and Tanja Dückers) / Friederike Eigler -- Fictionalizations: Holocaust memory and the generational construct in the works of contemporary women writers / Katharina Gerstenberger -- Play it again, Traude: the transgenerational transfer of wounds in Chris Kraus's Vier Minuten / Brad Prager -- From student movement to the generation of 1968: generational conflicts in German novels from the 1970s and the 1990s / Susanne Rinner -- Ghostly sisters: feminist legacies in second-generation perspectives on west German terrorism: Judith Kuckart's Wahl der Waffen (1990) and Kaiserstrausse (2006) / Svea Bräunert -- The generation gap: the reappropriation of the Red Army faction in contemporary German film / Ilka Rasch -- Post-Communist fantasies: generational conflict in Eastern German literature / Thomas C. Fox -- From father, from son: generational perspectives in Christoph Hein's Mama ist gegangen (2003) and Jakob Hein's Villeicht ist es sogar schön (2004) / Caroline Schaumann -- No questions asked: intergenerational silence in Stasi victim families: Jeder schweigt von etwas anderem (2006) / Laurel Cohen-Pfister -- Transnationalism meets provincialism: generations and identifications in Faserland, Kurz und schmerzlos, and Selam Berlin / Maria Stehle -- From Farbe bekennen to Schokoladenkind: generational change in Afro-German autobiographies / Reinhild Steingröver.
Contains passages in German.
