Memory and Representation of World War II in Contemporary British and German Fiction: a Comparative Analysis
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Memory and Representation of World War II in Contemporary British and German Fiction: a Comparative Analysis Christopher R. Barenberg A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2010 This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights. Abstract Memory and Representation of World War II in Contemporary British and German Fiction: a Comparative Analysis This thesis constitutes the first detailed attempt to compare British and German contemporary prose fiction in relation to the representation and transmission of collective memories of the Second World War. The primary aim of this comparison is to establish the existence of a transnational literary approach adopted by authors to address questions of how to remember the events that occurred during the Second World War in the absence of living memory. I will argue that prose fiction contributes to the interdisciplinary field of what could be loosely called 'memory studies' and that the similarities between British and German fictional responses to the Second World War indicate that there is a development towards a subgenre of memory fiction that transcends national boundaries. In my thesis, I have compared numerous contemporary examples of ‘memory’ fiction in Britain and Germany. These are: Marcel Beyer’s Flughunde [The Karnau Tapes] and Spione [Spies], Ulla Hahn’s Unscharfe Bilder [Blurred Images], Dagmar Leupold’s Nach den Kriegen [After the Wars], Thomas Medicus’s In den Augen meines Großvaters [In the Eyes of my Grandfather], and Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser [The Reader], Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow, Justin Cartwright’s The Song Before it’s Sung, Ian McEwan’s Black Dogs, A. L. Kennedy’s Day, Liz Jensen’s War Crimes for the Home, Graham Swift’s Shuttlecock and Out of this World. The texts were chosen on the basis that they are all examples of ‘memory’ fiction, a sub-genre of historical fiction which is mainly concerned with a self-reflexive representation of processes of collective remembering in the context of the legacy of the Second World War in the contemporary memory culture of the United Kingdom and Germany. My thesis compares these novels exploring absent memories, the relationship between ‘private’ and ‘public’ memory discourses, as well as memories of perpetration and guilt. It will show that aesthetic and thematic similarities are striking considering the differences in the national memory discourses of both countries and lead to the conclusion that we can see a development towards a subgenre of memory fiction beyond national boundaries. Translations All the translations in this thesis from German primary and secondary sources have been done by the author of this thesis. Below you will find a table including the translations of the German titles of my primary texts. Author German Title English Title Marcel Beyer Flughunde The Karnau Tapes Spione Spies Tanja Dückers Himmelskörper Heavenly Bodies Günter Grass Im Krebsgang Crabwalk Ulla Hahn Unscharfe Bilder Blurred Images Dagmar Leupold Nach den Kriegen After the Wars Thomas Medicus In den Augen meines In the Eyes of my Grandfather Großvaters Klaus Modick Der Kretische Gast The Cretan Guest Bernhard Schlink Der Vorleser The Reader Die Heimkehr Homecoming Uwe Timm Am Beispiel meines In my Brother’s Shadow Bruders Hans-Ulrich Treichel Der Verlorene The Lost Stephan Wackwitz Ein unsichtbares Land Invisible Country Contents Statement Abstract Translations Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter Two ABSENT MEMORY AND DETECTION 34 2.1 Investigating the Second World War in British Memory Fiction 39 2.1.2 Secondary Witnessing in Justin Cartwright’s The Song Before It Is Sung (2007) 40 2.1.3 Absent Memory and Family Myth in Ian McEwan’s Black Dogs (1992) 54 2.2 Investigating the Second World War in German Memory Fiction 69 2.2.1 Spying on the Past in Marcel Beyer’s Spione (2000) 70 2.2.2 Detection and Absent Memories in Thomas Medicus’ In den Augen meines Groβvaters (2004) 83 2.3 Conclusion 95 Chapter Three REPRESENTING FAMILY MEMORIES 100 3.1 The Family as a Social Framework for Collective Memories 102 3.2 Family Wartime Memories in German Fiction 104 3.2.1 Private and Public Memory in Uwe Timm’s Am Beispiel Meines Bruders (2003) 108 3.2.2 Memory Contests in Ulla Hahn’s Unscharfe Bilder (2005) 119 3.2.3 Family Myth in Dagmar Leupold’s Nach den Kriegen (2004) 130 Contents - continued 3.3 Family Wartime Memories in British Fiction 134 3.3.1 Private and Public Memories in Graham Swift’s 136 Shuttlecock (1981) 3.3.2 Re-instigating Private Memory Discourses in Liz Jensen’s War Crimes for the Home (2002) 144 3.4 Conclusion 154 Chapter Four PERPETRATION AND GUILT 157 4.1 Nazi Perpetration in Post-Unification German Fiction 157 4.1.1 Sounds of Perpetration in Marcel Beyer’s Flughunde (1996) 170 4.1.2 The Nazi Perpetrator in Bernhard Schlink‘s Der Vorleser (1995) 183 4.2 Perpetration and Guilt in British Fiction 194 4.2.1 The Nazi Perpetrator in Martin Amis’ Time's Arrow (1991) 202 4.2.2 Guilt in British Fiction 211 4.3 Conclusion 219 Chapter Five CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A PLURALIST MEMORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN FICTION 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Primary texts 233 2. Secondary texts 233 Chapter One Introduction This thesis constitutes the first detailed attempt to compare British and German contemporary prose fiction in relation to the representation and transmission of collective memories of the Second World War. The primary aim of this comparison is to establish the existence of a transnational literary approach adopted by authors to address questions of how to remember the events that occurred during the Second World War in the absence of living memory. I will argue that prose fiction contributes to the interdisciplinary field of what could be loosely called 'memory studies' and that the similarities between British and German fictional responses to the Second World War indicate that there is a development towards a subgenre of memory fiction that transcends national boundaries. The war and its aftermath have been a subject in British and German prose fiction alike since the early post-war era. There are countless fictional texts that are set during the war or that directly address its consequences. I would like to demonstrate that examples of memory fiction written in the last two decades differ significantly to previous representations of the war, often presenting a pluralist notion of 'collective memories' based a sense of secondary witnessing by the post- war generations. The recent emphasis on diverse memory discourses has caused critics to question single 'national' memory narratives. Kathryn N. Jones emphasises this point when she argues that in recent years: critics have called homogenizing concepts of monolithic, ‘national’ memories into question, and instead have emphasised the plurality of ways in which individuals, groups, communities, and nations remember.1 Monolithic national memory discourses are being slowly replaced by a more pluralistic approach in which issues of guilt, perpetration and victimhood become evermore relevant within fictional representation. Thus, the following thesis will aim to examine, through the close reading of British and German examples of memory fiction, a number of similarities such as the problem of absent memories, unresolved 1 Kathryn N. Jones, Journeys of Remembrance: Memories of the Second World War in French and German Literature, 1960-1980, p. 6. 1 memories relating to guilt and trauma, and the complex relationship between ‘private’ and ‘public’ memory discourses. It will also examine to what extent these can be seen as the basis of a development towards a ‘transnational’ literary approach to collective memories of the war, despite clear distinctions between the national discourses of memorialisation. As Aleida Assmann and Sebastian Conrad have observed in the Introduction to their edited volume Memory in a Global Age: While some memories are currently anchored on a national level in museums and monuments, others are exported across national boundaries.2 This supports the notion that collective memories are not solely to be found within the limits of national ‘public’ and ‘private’ discourses, but rather that some have moved into transnational discourses. I would like to argue that this process of ‘transnationalisation’ of discourses can be found within the aesthetic fictional representation of Second World War memories. Furthermore, during the early post-war era fictional representations of the war largely dealt with first-hand memories of people who experienced its terror. Texts such as, for example, Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy (published 1952 - 1961) and Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s Das Boot [The Boat, 1973] echo the authors' own wartime experiences. As living memory gradually disappears, the focus of memory fiction has shifted from testimony to the transmission of memories and the problematic nature of these ‘second-hand’ memories. Many contemporary literary representations of the war in Britain and Germany thus focus on making the events 'meaningful and memorable' for post-war generations, rather than on portrayal of first-hand memories and testimonies.3 Indeed, some scholars today are arguing the possibility of a paradigm shift in contemporary historical fiction, away from questioning historiography and its problems of objectivity and truth towards a pluralistic notion of memory that contributes to defining a sense of identity.4 As Christoph Henke puts it: 2 Aleida Assmann and Sebastian Conrad (eds.).