German Studies

LITERATURE, 1945 TO THE PRESENT DAY By GERALD 0PIE, Lecturer in German, University ofExeter

I. GENERAL K. Barck, 'Rezeptionasthetik und soziale Funktion der Literatur', WE, 3 I : I r 3 1 -49· Film und Literatur. Literarische Text und der neue deutsche Film, ed. Sigrid Bauschinger, Susan L. Cocalis, and Henry A. Lea, Berne- Munich, Francke, I984, 240 pp., includes inter alia an essay on Katharina Blum (A. K. Kuhn) and one on cinematic aspects of contemporary German prose (R. A. Berman). A. von Bormann, 'Mythos und Subjekt-Utopie. Bemerkungen zur gegenwartigen M ythos-Diskussion', L 'Bot no. 34: 2g-45. D. Chotjewitz, 'Die Nieder• kunft des Zettelkastens. Uber Literatur von Jugendlichen', Kurbis• kem, no. 4: I 35-46.]. Drews, 'Der erschiitterte Sinn und der Tanz der Perspektiven. Zur Lage der Literaturwissenschaft', Merkur, 39:922-28. M. Durzak, 'Das Amerikabild in der deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur', Hommages Plard, pp. 407-28. R. Grimminger, 'Heimsuchungen der Vernunft. Die Postmoderne und Matthes Seitz', Merkur, 39:842-58. E. Hahn, 'Ideologie und Kunst', WE, 31: 1413-24. B. Hocke et al., 'Ideologie und Kunst', WB, 31: 1425-68. Das schnelle Altern der neuesten Literatur. Essays zu den Texten zwischen 1968-1984, ed. Jochen Horisch and Hubert Winkels, Dusseldorf, Claassen, 3 I9 pp., addresses in a series of more or less intelligible essays the question of novelty and the more extreme forms of neo• dadaist experimentation. Writers treated include Celan, Bachmann, Enzensberger, Kluge, Handke and . JDASD, I6, rg84 ( I985): I3-46, has two substantial articles (R. Baumgart, U. Krechel) under the heading 'Ich und Welt - iiber autobiographische Tendenzen in der neuesten deutschen Literatur'. T. Madrazo, 'La existencia de dos literaturas alemanas. Pretension o realidad', ComGer, IO, I984: 7-20. W. Michel, 'Literaturverfilmung- Funk• tionswandel eines Genres', Universitas, 40: 10I5-27. M. Motte, 'Moderne Literatur- ein Weg zum Glauben?', Stimmen der Zeit, 203:39g-4I2. A. Ritter, 'Weif3e Felder im germanistischen For• schungsprogramm. Thesen zur notwendigen Reflexion deutsch• sprachiger Literatur des Auslands', GM, no. Ig, 1984: 2g-36. Kurt Rathmann, Deutschsprachige Schriflsteller seit 1945 in Einzeldarstellungen, Stuttgart, Reclam, 404 pp., is a handy little reference work containing highly condensed accounts of the work of about eighty writers whose first major publication occurs after I945· An excellent exposition of its subject is presented by Barbara Saunders, Contemporary , 1945 to the Present Day Autobiography: Literary Approaches to the Problem of Identity, Univ. of London Inst. of Gmc Studies, vii+ I48 pp. The author treats examples of the genre by , Canetti, Frisch, Koeppen, and 'with a view to analysing the concepts of individuality, of memory, and of divided cultural identity which underlie each of these works and set them apart from other European examples'. Well-balanced and controlled, it describes lucidly the salient features of 2oth-c. autobiography as a form that occupies a borderland between fact and fiction, documentary reportage and fantasy and that offers an alienated generation the opportunity of a more honest encounter with individual experience than the genre has traditionally done. C. Schmelzkopf, 'Zur Gestaltung jii.discher Figuren in der deutschsprachigen Literatur nach I 945', Strauss and Hoffmann, juden, pp. 273-94. K. Stadtke, 'Das Werk in der Geschichte. Zu Fragen einer Theorie der Literaturgeschichte', WB, 3I: I Ioo-30. P. Stenberg, 'Going down the road: German claus• trophobia and American space', GLL, 38: I65-76. Ralf Sudau, Werkbearbeitung, Dichterjiguren. Traditionsaneignung am Beispiel der deut• schen Gegenwartsliteratur, Tii.bingen, Niemeyer, 307 pp., offers a well• executed and systematic examination of an absorbing topic. The principal genre studied is drama, with Brecht's reworking of Der Hofmeister and Kipphardt's of Die Soldaten, as well as Kroetz's Maria Magdalene, coming under close scrutiny. Biographical fiction is also considered, with discussions of Peter Hartling's and 's treatments of Holderlin. Surprisingly there is no mention of Bier• mann's Deutschland. Ein Wintermarchen. The author concludes that the marked renewal of interest in the cultural tradition is no empty conservatism, but involves a productive and valuable dialogue with the past in a period that has discovered its need for a sense of direction and perspective. R. Weimann, 'Mimesis und die Bii.rde der Reprasentation. Der Poststrukturalismus und das Produktionspro• blem in fiktiven Texten', WB, 3I: I06I-99· B. Zimmermann, 'Litera• turkritische Entwicklungen von I 945 bis zur Gegenwart', Hohendahl, Geschichte, pp. 3.oo-2o. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur. III, 2. 1945-1980, ed. Victor Zmegac, Konigstein, Athenaum, I984, 5 I 2 pp., explicitly attempts to avoid becoming a 'kommentiertes Telefonbuch', and succeeds admirably in giving a broad survey of the main lines of literary development in the period. The sectional division, in accordance with the socio-historical approach, follows the political geography of the German-speaking countries. There is rather less account taken of 'Trivialliteratur' and of the media than the editorial introduction leads one to expect, but nevertheless much is achieved in the space available.