Appropriated Memory: The Creation of a German Post-Memorial Literature (Cultural Memories, 23) - Softcover

Zachau, Reinhard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 180374703X ISBN 13: 9781803747033

Publisher: Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers, 2025

Synopsis

Th​is​​ b​ook offers a survey of post-World War II German-language post-memorial writing.​ An analysis​ of​ the books by​ Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and Wolfgang Koeppen​ e​xposes the difficult path of German writing about the Holocaust. Koeppen’s unauthorized ​​appropriation of Jakob Littner’s survivor memoir serves as the frame for th​is study,​​ ​expos​ing​​ ​the difference​s​ between perpetrator and victim perspectives. The various attempts ​by​ the current generation​ of authors​ to bridge th​is​ ​divide​ ​reflect​ the renewed interest and changed attitude​s​ towards the Holocaust ​that emerged ​in Germany after ​R​eunification. Included in this volume are W. G. Sebald’s imaginary dialogue between a victim and a perpetrator, Ursula Krechel’s exploration of Jewish life in Shanghai from a Jewish perspective, Iris Hanika’s presentation of the distraught mindset of a member of Germany’s second perpetrator generation, and Kevin Vennemann’s ​narrative about​ a Jewish child in​ the midst of​ a Polish massacre.

About this title

About the Author

Reinhard Zachau is ​Professor Emeritus at the University of the South​. He has published a number of books, on Stefan Heym, Hans Fallada, Heinrich Böll, Berlin’s Modernism, and on German film. Appropriated Memory originate​d​​ ​in the extensive media coverage that the author’s discovery of Jakob Littner’s Holocaust survivor memoir in 2000 received.

Edition details

• Publisher: Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 180374703X
• ISBN 13: 9781803747033
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 262