German Literature in a New Century

Katharina Gerstenberger is Professor of German and Head of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She earned her PhD from Cornell University in 1993. She is the author of Truth to Tell: German Women’s Autobiographies and Turn-of-the-Century Culture (2000). She also publishes on contemporary literature and identity.

“This book contains many thoughtful essays on contemporary German literary culture, with an interesting mixture of chapters focusing on analyses of individual authors as well as the consumption and marketing of literature…Read as a whole, the book provides a refreshing variety of perspectives on ;key questions of contemporary cultural and literary trends in Germany.”  ·  Modern Language Review“The great majority of these essays are well-written and well-researched…they provide an abundance of pertinent information, including an extensive index, which makes this book altogether a very valuable resource for further investigations.”  ·  German Studies Review“This outstanding collection of insightful and thought-provoking articles marks a significant advancement of scholarship on contemporary literature. While contributions (remarkable for their consistently high quality) are valuable on their, all benefit from being read in conjunction with the others.”  ·  German Studies Review“Taken as a whole, this is an important contribution to scholarship on contemporary German-language literature. Its emphasis on younger authors, on literary marketing, and on female and Turkish-German authors confirms that literature continues to provide an important forum for discussions of German identity, but that in the new century the contours of that identity are rapidly changing.”  ·  Monatshefte

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: German Literature in a New Century: Trends, Traditions, Transitions, TransformationsKatharina Gerstenberger and Patricia HerminghousePART I: TRENDS: LITERATURE IN THE PUBLIC SPHEREPatricia HerminghouseChapter 1. The Literary Public Sphere: A Case for German Particularity?Sean McIntyreChapter 2. Intellectuals in the Public Sphere: An InterviewJosef JoffeChapter 3. Literatur findet... nicht nur auf Papier statt”: The Eventization of Literature in HamburgDonovan AndersonChapter 4. The Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig and the Making of an Author: Tobias Hülswitt Hits the Road for Literature and Ends Up a WriterRachel J. HalversonPART II: TRADITIONS: HISTORY, MEMORY, AND NARRATIVELaurel Cohen-PfisterChapter 5. Degrees of History in Contemporary German NarrativesPatricia Anne SimpsonChapter 6. Luftkrieg Revisited: Contemporary Responses to the Allied Bombings of German CitiesSydney NortonChapter 7. An Aesthetics of Memory for Third-Generation Germans: Tanja Dückers’s HimmelskörperLaurel Cohen-PfisterChapter 8. The Continuation of Countermemory: Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Seltsame Sterne starren zur ErdeJohn PizerPART III:TRANSITIONS: FORM AND PERFORMANCE AFTER 1989Katharina Gerstenberger Chapter 9. A Path of Poetic Potentials: Coordinates of German Lyric Identity in the Poetry of Zafer ŞenocakErika M. NelsonChapter 10. Performing GDR in Poetry?: The Literary Significance of “East German” Poetry in Unified GermanyBirgit DahlkeChapter 11. Feridun Zaimoglu’s Performance of Gender and AuthorshipGary SchmidtPART IV: TRANSFORMATIONS: WOMEN WRITING IN THE NEW CENTURYPatricia HerminghouseChapter 12. From Frauenliteratur to Frauenliteraturbetrieb: Marketing Literature to German Women in the Twenty-first CenturyJulia Karolle-Berg and Katya SkowChapter 13. Social Alienation and Gendered Surveillance in Julia Franck’s WorksBeret NormanChapter 14. Small Stories: The Novels of Martina HefterKatharina GerstenbergerChapter 15. The Young Author as Public Intellectual: The Case of Juli ZehPatricia HerminghouseNotes on ContributorsBibliographyIndex