GDR Bulletin

Volume 3 Issue 2 April Article 8

1977

Christa Wolf: Kindheitsmuster

Edith Waldstein Washington University

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Recommended Citation Waldstein, Edith (1977) "Christa Wolf: Kindheitsmuster," GDR Bulletin: Vol. 3: Iss. 2. https://doi.org/ 10.4148/gdrb.v3i2.386

This Review is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in GDR Bulletin by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact cads@k- state.edu. Waldstein: Christa Wolf: Kindheitsmuster is explored—the GDR concrete poem is concerned with "dialogical popularity" and the FRG con• crete poem with a "monological game." Informa• tive is the discussion of the various antholo• lated in this apparently selfish motive but gies in which Gumpel offers not only analyses of should also risult in improved communication the volumes but also background material on between generations, as exemplified by the their structure and reasons for the inclusion relationship between Lenka, the teen-aged and exclusion of certain authors. daughter, and her mother. For someone not familiar with the vocabulary of It is through writing that Christa Wolf her• semiotics, this book is not always easy reading. self is able to deal with the aforementioned However, it is an interesting study of the con• problems and communicate with others. In cepts of "Concrete poetry" in the GDR and West other words, she goes through a process of Germany and of the changing language in the two rememherjng similar to that of the mother, German states. the main difference being that Christa Polf comes to grips with her past through writing. Harriet F. O'Swald Because the act of writing is of such central Eastern Washington State College ******** importance to the author, she does not only reflect on specific events such as the Hitler- augend rallies or the Reichskristallnacht, Kindheitsmuster. 3y Christa Wolf. Berlin but also frequently discusses her reasons for and Weimar: Aufbau-Verlag, 1976. 534 pages. writing, the difficulties encountered, the D.M. 9,90. methods used, and the purpose it is to serve. But this constant reflection and discussion When discussing Christa Wolf's works, begin• does not at all deprive the reader of using ning always appears problematic, because one his imagination or detract from the "artis• does not know with exactly what term to tic" quality of the work, as has been sug• classify them. This characterization is es• gested by some critics. Instead, this well- pecially true of her latest publication Kind- integrated stylistic device gives the work heitsmuster. Lengthy reviews dealing with a very realistic quality and immensely aids the question of whether it is an autobiogra• the reader in analyzing the basic themes. It phy, an essay or a novel have already ap• also adds a new dimension, under which peared and will most certainly continue. Christa Wolf's entire literary work can be Such discussions have not, however, aided in better understood: the discussion of how and understanding or evaluating this work and may why she writes. It is through reflection even obstruct the reader's insight into one within the book that Christa Wolf makes it of the main themes: the method and function possible for the reader to experience a simi• of writing. lar contemplative process, which does not ne• cessarily mean that the conclusions reached The narrator introduces a modern GDR family by the reader will be identical to those of on a week-end trip to a town in Poland, the Christa Wolf. It does, however, create an birthplace of the mother. The purpose of intimate atmosphere between the reader and this trin for her is to come to grips with the author and encourages the reader to take her past, in order to lead a full and con• a stand on the presented issues. structive life in the present and to antici• In Kindheitsmuster Christa Wolf attempts to pate and mold the future. She attempts to describe and communicate her own childhood deal with the question of what actually oc• experiences with such sensitivity that her curred between 1929 and 1946, the years of readers will also realize the nee.l to reflect her childhood and youth. The investigation on what at first glance may appear to be of this period necessitates true remembering, simply a past, moral issue. One cannot, how-r genuine questioning of conscience. Through ever, deny the contemporary, political impli• the portrayal of such an inquiry, the narra• cations, especially within the context of the tion of which is conducted on the contempo• GDR. As the author herself has pointed out rary temporal level, an entire generation is in a discussion of the book, the younger ge• being addressed and encouraged to make an at• neration in the GDR is still a king ques• tempt at overcoming this particular time. tions about the period during which Hitler This generation must examine its own, as well rose to power, and the older generation is as its elders' actions and reactionsto what either unable or unwilling to answer. Al• was happening around them, in order to re• though ^^hejiJ^miAster is primarily directed lieve themselves of guilt feelings which they toward the GDR reading public, occurrences do not understand. The questioning of the conscience should not, however, remain iso• Published by New Prairie Press, 1977 1 GDR Bulletin, Vol.-7- 3 [1977], Iss. 2, Art. 8 in Vietnam and Chile, for example, are also stark reality and the rationalization of 'mentioned, pointing to the broader implica• tions of the work. society. Much of the poetry allows for a critical interpretation of the GDR reality, Edith Waldstein but the translations do not make the poems more susceptible for such critical interpre• Washington University tation. .' Since it is always difficult to capture the full aesthetic and substantial meaning of poetry, the German originals should have been Time for Dreams: Poetry from the German Demo• included as was done in the anthologies edited cratic Republic. Edited by Günther Deicke. by Kunert and Hamburger. In fact, the trans• Translated by Jack Mitchell. Berlin: Seven lations by themselves are not sufficient to Seas Publishers, 1976. 179 pages carry out the intended purpose of the volume. Rr one thing, Mitchell has sacrificed the Given the scarcity of GDR literature in trans*, meters, rhythms, and rhymes for literary acc• lation, a volume of poetry from the German uracy, and in some cases, even the accuracy Democratic Republic would appear to be a wel^ is questionable. In spot-checking the trans• come addition to the material which is slowly lations, I found them uniformly lacking in becoming available to readers who have no know• poetic verve and imagination. The translations ledge of German. In the particular case of of such works as Karl Mickel's "Nächtliches poetry, there are already fine selelctions of Gespräch über Gott und die Welt" and "Epitaph East German poetry (with the German originals) für Partisanen," Volker Braun's "Provakation 1973 in the special GDR issue of Dimension für mich", and Günter Kunert's "Notizen in edited by (Hinter Kunert and in the anthology Kreide" disregard the poets' use of metrical East German Poetry edited by Michael Hamburger. structure to underline the emotional impact The present volume, Time for Dreams, is use• of their message. There a e also poor choices ful in that it does not duplicate the works of words and metaphors which fail to convey included in Dimension and East German Poetry the contents of the original poems. To cite and it gives a good cross-sampling of estab-^ some examples from Braun' "Provokation für 1968. lished poets' works since However, the mich," Mitchell translates "andauernd" with the volume must be used with great care since the awkward phrase "with grim determination." representation of poets is inadequate and the He uses the word "extol" for "preisen" when the poetry is often poorly translated. simple term "praise" would have been more Let us begin first with the selection made by suitable. Later in the poem, he acturlly Deicke. As he readily ad:iits, "anthologies Switches to the word "praise" and shows an are always coloured to a certain extent by the inconsistency in usage. Finally, the term editor's own preferences, no matter how much "Honorar der Herzen" is translated as "wages he may be at pains to achieve objectivity." of hearts," which totally misses the point His criteria for selection center around a that Braun wants to make. These are only a cross-section of the more established poets few examples from one poem. It does no service whose work is representative and typical of to East German poetry to produce a volume of verse committed to "literary realism in a translated poems just for the sake of making society building socialism." Missing from this GDR artistic production available in the West. volume are such established "renegades"as Both the aesthetic and political implications of Wolf Biermann (of course), Heiner Müller, this anthology must be studied and used with Thomas Brasch, and Peter Hüchel. Nor are the critical reservation if it is to serve a genuine more provocative poems of writers like Reiner purpose of cultural reception ir ';he West. Kunze presented. Apparent is a narrow politic cal perspective which limits the ideological Jack Zipes concern of the poetry. Otherwise, the works University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee of 21 poets are presented, and there is a nice balance achieved between poems which deal with the everyday life in the GDR, literary and historical subjects, and acceptable political topics. The title of the anthology is taken from a poem by Paul Wiens and suggests the Utopian impetus behind the volume: "When is; it time for dreams?/Never/And always." Obvi• ously a defense of the poetic imagination is https://newprairiepress.org/gdr/vol3/iss2/8intended which is the critical measure of DOI: 10.4148/gdrb.v3i2.386 2