Agnes Mueller & Katja Garloff 
German Jewish Literature after 1990 

Edited volume tracing the development of a new generation of German Jewish writers, offering fresh interpretations of individual works, and probing the very concept of ‚German Jewish literature.‘






The 1990 reunification of Germany gave rise to a new generation of writers who write in German, identify as both German and Jewish, and often also sustain cultural affiliations with places such as Russia, Azerbaijan, or Israel. This edited volume traces the development of this new literature into the present, offers fresh interpretations of individual works, and probes the very concept of ‚German Jewish literature.‘ A central theme is the transformation ofmemory at a time when the Holocaust is moving into greater historical distance while the influx of new immigrant groups to Germany brings other past trauma into view. The volume’s ten original essays by scholars from Europe and the US reframe the debates about Holocaust memory and contemporary German culture. The concluding interviews with authors Mirna Funk and Olga Grjasnowa offer a glimpse into the future of German Jewish literature.


Contributors: Luisa Banki, Caspar Battegay, Helen Finch, Mirna Funk, Katja Garloff, Olga Grjasnowa, Elizabeth Loentz, Andree Michaelis-König, Agnes Mueller, Jessica Ortner, Jonathan Skolnik, Stuart Taberner.


Katja Garloff is Professor of German and Humanities at Reed College. Agnes Mueller is the College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the University of South Carolina.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction – Katja Garloff and Agnes Mueller

PART I. SELF-REFLECTION in FIRST- and SECOND-GENERATION AUTHORS

What Is a German Jewish Author? Authorial Self-Fashioning in Maxim Biller, Esther Dischereit, and Barbara Honigmann – Katja Garloff

(Non-Jewish) German Constructions of (German) Jewish Writing in the Late Work of Günter Grass, Martin Walser, and Christa Wolf – Stuart Taberner

Revenge, Restitution,
Ressentiment: Edgar Hilsenrath’s and Ruth Klüger’s Late Writings as Holocaust Metatestimony – Helen Finch

PART II. MULTIPLE IDENTITIES and DIVERSIFICATION of HOLOCAUST MEMORY

The German Jewish Migrant Novel after 1990: Politics of Memory and Multidirectional Writing – Jessica Ortner

Beyond Negative Symbiosis: The Displacement of Holocaust Trauma and Memory in Alina Bronksy’s
Scherbenpark and Olga Grjasnowa’s
Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt – Elizabeth Loentz

Memory without Borders? Migrant Identity and the Legacy of the Holocaust in Olga Grjasnowa’s
Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt – Jonathan Skolnik

Multilingualism and Jewishness in Katja Petrowskaja’s
Vielleicht Esther – Andree Michaelis-König

PART III. NEW THEMES and DIRECTIONS in RECENT GERMAN JEWISH LITERATURE

Actuality and Historicity in Mirna Funk’s
Winternähe – Luisa Banki

German Psycho: The Language of Depression in Oliver Polak’s
Der jüdische Patient – Caspar Battegay

Religion and the Holocaust: Imre Kertész, Benjamin Stein, and
Kaddish for a Friend – Agnes Mueller

PART IV. CODA: INTERVIEWS with TWO CONTEMPORARY GERMAN JEWISH WRITERS

Interview with Olga Grjasnowa – Katja Garloff and Agnes Mueller

Interview with Mirna Funk – Katja Garloff and Agnes Mueller

Bibliography

Notes on the Contributors

Index

Über den Autor

STUART TABERNER is Professor of German at the University of Leeds, UK.