Alternate History – Alternate Memory: Counterfactual Literature in the Context of German Normalization
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ALTERNATE HISTORY – ALTERNATE MEMORY: COUNTERFACTUAL LITERATURE IN THE CONTEXT OF GERMAN NORMALIZATION by GUIDO SCHENKEL M.A., Freie Universität Berlin, 2006 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (German Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2012 © Guido Schenkel, 2012 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines a variety of Alternate Histories of the Third Reich from the perspective of memory theory. The term ‘Alternate History’ describes a genre of literature that presents fictional accounts of historical developments which deviate from the known course of hi story. These allohistorical narratives are inherently presentist, meaning that their central question of “What If?” can harness the repertoire of collective memory in order to act as both a reflection of and a commentary on contemporary social and political conditions. Moreover, Alternate Histories can act as a form of counter-memory insofar as the counterfactual mode can be used to highlight marginalized historical events. This study investigates a specific manifestation of this process. Contrasted with American and British examples, the primary focus is the analysis of the discursive functions of German-language counterfactual literature in the context of German normalization. The category of normalization connects a variety of commemorative trends in postwar Germany aimed at overcoming the legacy of National Socialism and re-formulating a positive German national identity. The central hypothesis is that Alternate Histories can perform a unique task in this particular discursive setting. In the context of German normalization, counterfactual stories of the history of the Third Reich are capable of functioning as alternate memories, meaning that they effectively replace the memory of real events with fantasies that are better suited to serve as exculpatory narratives for the German collective. To develop the theoretical framework for this new category, the dissertation delineates and contrasts pertinent theories of both collective memory and counter-memory and harnesses the scholarly findings of these fields to expand existing critical understandings of the genre of Alternate History. The combination of this sociological approach with the methodology of literary studies is applied in a close reading to an exemplary selection of Alternate Histories, grouped into three themes which correspond closely to prominent narratives of German collective memory: The universalization of National Socialism, the motif of the ‘good German,’ and the myth of German victimization. This approach demonstrates in detail the narrative strategies that constitute alternate memory in the context of German normalization. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... iv Dedication .................................................................................................................................. v 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 2. Alternate Histories: Memory, Counter-Memory, Alternate Memory ....................................... 8 2.1 Alternative Historiographies .......................................................................................... 9 2.2 Counterfactual Nazis .................................................................................................. 19 2.3 Collective Memory and National Identity .................................................................... 28 2.4 From Counter-Memory to Alternate Memory .............................................................. 37 2.5 Alternate Memory and German Normalization ............................................................ 46 3. It Could Happen … Anyway: Universalizing Nazism ........................................................... 57 3.1 The Man in the High Castle ......................................................................................... 58 3.2 Samuel Hitler............................................................................................................... 64 3.3 Making History ............................................................................................................ 81 3.4 Ausflug ........................................................................................................................ 88 3.5 Requiem für einen Stümper .......................................................................................... 96 4. Counterfactual Heroes: The ‘Good German’ ....................................................................... 106 4.1 Fatherland ................................................................................................................. 108 4.2 Alles bleibt anders .................................................................................................... 113 4.3 Der 21. Juli ............................................................................................................... 124 5. Alternate Holocausts: Victimizing the Perpetrators ............................................................. 137 5.1 Die Stimmen der Nacht .............................................................................................. 144 5.2 Morbus Kitahara ....................................................................................................... 159 5.3 Im Jahre Ragnarök .................................................................................................... 174 6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 182 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................... 185 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere thanks go first and foremost to the members of my supervisory committee. My supervisor, Dr. Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, has been a major inspiration for this project from the very beginning, through both his own insightful work on the subject of Alternate History and his supportive advice throughout the preparation of my thesis. Dr. Ilinca Iurascu has motivated me to look beyond the immediate scope of my topic and improved my understanding of the issues surrounding it. And, last but certainly not least, Prof. Dr. Sabine Schülting, as an expert in the fields of English Literature and Cultural Studies, has provided me with an invaluable interdisciplinary perspective. All of them have tirelessly supplied me with helpful feedback and have patiently guided me through moments of crisis. This dissertation would not exist without their support. I would further like to thank the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) for facilitating my research both academically and financially, and my countless friends and colleagues across the globe, whose manifold contributions to the successful completion of my dissertation have ranged from moral support to ad hoc international library runs. Finally, I am grateful to the good people at the Letter Shop and especially my wife Henriette (in addition to a million other things) for the printing of the finished product. iv for h. bis zum mond und wieder zurück v 1. INTRODUCTION A war or revolution may create a great chasm between two generations, as if an intermediate generation had just disappeared. In such a case, who can be sure that, on the day after, the youth of society will not be primarily concerned, as the old will be, with erasing any traces of that rupture, reconciling separated generations and maintaining, in spite of everything, continuity of social evolution? 1 Wenn etwas vorbei ist, ist man nicht mehr der, dem es passierte.2 In light of the development of German memory discourses over the past seventy years and the ways in which they engage the legacy of the Third Reich, the Second World War, and the Holocaust, the above quote from Maurice Halbwachs’ seminal study The Collective Memory appears virtually prophetic. Erasing the traces of the rupture that these events represent in the context of (German) history has been an ongoing process ever since the earliest days of the postwar period. This has been referred to, by proponents and critics alike, as the process of German normalization. As a victim of the very regime whose crimes have inscribed themselves so deeply into the collective memory of Germans and the whole world, the inherent optimism expressed by Halbwachs in these lines – which were, of course, actually concerned with the disruption of social continuity caused by World War I – also acquires a tragic quality. In direct contrast, the second quote becomes almost cynical. It is taken from Martin Walser’s novel Ein springender Brunnen, a prominent literary example of a highly selective interaction with the past, represented by the author’s attempt to reflect on his childhood under, but utterly untouched by, National Socialism. While Walser has generally become one of the most well-known and vocal proponents