Literature, 1990 to the Present

Heike Henderson Boise State University

1 General detailed analyses of literary texts by Helmut Krause, Daniel Kehlmann, Thomas Glavinic, Overviews Ulrike Draesner and Felicitas Hoppe. Leonhard Herrmann and Silke Horstkotte, Die Rezension: Aktuelle Tendenzen der Li- Gegenwartsliteratur:Eine Einführung, Stuttgart, teraturkritik, ed. Andrea Bartl and Markus Metzler, 2016, 230 pp., provides a comprehens- Behmer, Würzburg, Königshausen & Neu- ive introduction to and overview of German mann, 345 pp., considers the value of liter- literature since 1989. The authors pay spe- ary criticism, including new forms like book cific attention to the following topics: the lit- blogs and YouTube videos, as a topic for schol- erary debates surrounding Christa Wolf, Botho arly research. Verena Hepperle’s analysis of Strauß, Günter Grass and Martin Walser, ‘Wen- the newspaper debates regarding Christian deromane’ and German unification, pop lit- Kracht’s novel Imperium is particularly relev- erature and the ‘Fräuleinwunder’, history and ant for this section. memory, war and terror, globalization, utopias and dystopias, theatre, poetry, and finally lit- Feminist Studies erature’s marketability and mediality. While it Margaret McCarthy, Mad Mädchen. Feminism is obviously not possible to provide detailed and Generational Conflict in Recent German analyses of all relevant literature within one Literature and Film, New York, Berghahn, 270 volume, the authors manage to cover a wide pp., offers an analysis of trans-generational variety of perspectives on contemporary Ger- debates within feminism and their represent- man literature. ation in recent German literature and film. Die Kunst der Ordnung: Standortbestimmun- McCarthy identifies defining tropes like the gen gegenwärtigen Erzählens, ed. Antje Arnold mother-daughter relationship and discusses and Wiebke Dannecker, Würzburg, Königs- Zoë Jenny’s The Pollen Room, Alexa Hennig hausen & Neumann, 222 pp., considers nar- von Lange’s Relax, Elke Naters’s Lies, Charlotte ratives of order (including postmodern disar- Roche’s Wetlands and Wrecked, Christian Pet- ray) in contemporary literature, with a spe- zold’s The State I Am In and Fatih Akin’s The cial focus on Jenny Erpenbeck, Saša Stanišić, Edge of Heaven in detail. She ultimately argues Elfriede Jelinek, Günter Grass, Wolfgang Hil- for an understanding of the contradictions in big, Felicitas Hoppe, W.G. Sebald and Arnold feminism today as aesthetically and politically Stadler. generative.

Poetological Questions and Literary Criticism Ecocriticism Benjamin Schaper, Poetik und Politik der Les- German Ecocriticism in the Anthropocene, ed. barkeit in der deutschen Literatur, Heidelberg, Caroline Schaumann and Heather Sullivan, Winter, 264 pp., attempts to develop read- New York, Palgrave, xi + 348 pp., offers essays ability as a poetological category. Although on both canonical and non-canonical German- Schaper does not follow a consistent defini- language texts and films, advancing ecocrit- tion of readability (alternating between public ical models for German Studies, and introdu- success and text-inherent criteria), he provides cing environmental issues in German literat-

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi: 10.1163/22224297-07901043 574 germanstudies ure and film to a broader audience. Particu- including Clemens J. Setz, Vea Kaiser, Rein- larly relevant for this section are the following hard Kaiser-Mühlecker, Manfred Wieninger, articles: Jason Groves, ‘Writing After Nature: A Erich Hackl, Martin Pollack, Peter Turrini, Josef Sebaldian Ecopoetics’ (267–292), Axel Good- Winkler, Thomas Glavinic, Christoph Rans- body, ‘Telling the Story of Climate Change: mayr, Arno Geiger, and Marlene Streeruwitz. The German Novel in the Anthropocene’ (293– Priska Seisenbacher and Verena Humer, 314), which includes an in-depth analysis of Ökonomie und Gender: Künstlerische Reflexi- Ilija Trojanow’s EisTau and Cornelia Franz’s Ins onenvonFraueninÖsterreichzwischen1968und Nordlicht blicken; and Gabriele Dürbeck, ‘The heute, Vienna, Praesens, 326 pp., presents the Anthropocene in Contemporary German Eco- results of a scholarly project by the Elfriede thrillers’ (315–331), which explores ecothrillers Jelinek Forschungszentrum at the University as one of few genres depicting climate change. of Vienna. It includes interviews with Barbara EcologicalThought in German Literature and Albert, Renate Bertlmann, Eva Brenner, Olga Culture, ed. Gabriele Dürbeck et al., Lanham, Flor, Xenia Hausner, Elke Silvia Krystufek, Bar- Lexington, 484 pp., includes two chapters on bara Pichler, Marlene Streeruwitz, and Christi- contemporary literature: Evi Zemanek, ‘Ele- ane von Poelnitz. mental Poetics: Material Agency in Contem- Ursula A. Schneider and Annette Stein- porary German Poetry’ (281–295), and Gabri- siek, ‘Obocht, Leutln! Hinkelstoanschlog. Li- ele Dürbeck, ‘Climate Change Fiction and Eco- terarische Vorlage und Dialekt in Felix Mitter- thrillers in Contemporary German-Speaking ers Übertragungen von Asterix und John Mil- Literature’ (331–345). lington Synges Playboy’, Nestroyana, 37:160–174, Caroline Schaumann and Heather I. Sul- analyses two literary transfers by Mitterer from livan, ‘Hybrid Environments in the Anthro- 1999 with a special focus on their use of dialect. pocene: Recent Fiction’, pp. 38–61 of Read- ings in the Anthropocene: The Environmental Swiss Studies Humanities, German Studies, and Beyond, ed. Transkulturalität der Deutschschweizer Litera- Sabine Wilke and Japhet Johnstone, New York, tur: Entgrenzung durch Kulturtransfer und Mi- Bloomsbury, 336 pp., explores contemporary gration, ed. Vesna Kondrič Horvat, Wiesbaden, German short stories, novels and genre fic- Metzler, 305 pp., attempts to prove that Swiss tion by Clemens Meyer, Tanja Dückers, and German literature has long become transcul- Andreas Eschbach. Rather than emphasizing tural. The 21 essays collected in this volume the death and destruction of existing ecolo- deal with a wide variety of well-known and gies, these texts, the authors argue, depict resi- less well-known Swiss German writers, includ- lience and creative adaptations to the apparent ing Hugo Loetscher, Urs Widmer, Rolf Nieder- wastelands and newly developed ecosystems. hauser, Gertrud Leutenegger, Christoph Keller, Meral Kureyshi, Katja Fusek, Francesco Micieli, Austrian Studies Yusuf Yesilöz, Zsusanna Gahse, Dana Grigor- Zwischen Einflussangst und Einflusslust: Zur cea, and Franco Supino. The range of covered Auseinandersetzung mit der Tradition in der authors thus includes both native Swiss writers österreichischen Gegenwartsliteratur, ed. Joan- and those who have migrated to Switzer- na Drynda, Alicja Krauze-Olejniczak, and Sla- land. womir Piontek, Vienna, Praesens, 168 pp., Eszter Pabis, Literarische Grenzgänge: Di- examines how contemporary Austrian literat- mensionen der Fremdheit in der deutschsprachi- ure deals with an inspiring or intimidating gen Gegenwartsliteratur der Schweiz, Vienna, tradition. The exemplary studies focus on a Praesens, 223 pp., also deals with transcul- wide variety of contemporary Austrian writers, tural aspects of Swiss-German literature. After