In the Shadow of the Family Tree: Narrating Family History in Väterliteratur and the Generationenromane Jennifer S. Cameron Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2012 2012 Jennifer S. Cameron All rights reserved ABSTRACT In the Shadow of the Family Tree: Narrating Family History in Väterliteratur and the Generationenromane Jennifer S. Cameron While debates over the memory and representation of the National Socialist past have dominated public discourse in Germany over the last forty years, the literary scene has been the site of experimentation with the genre of the autobiography, as authors developed new strategies for exploring their own relationship to the past through narrative. Since the late 1970s, this experimentation has yielded a series of autobiographical novels which focus not only on the authors’ own lives, but on the lives and experiences of their family members, particularly those who lived during the NS era. In this dissertation, I examine the relationship between two waves of this autobiographical writing, the Väterliteratur novels of the late 1970s and 1980s in the BRD, and the current trend of multi-generational family narratives which began in the late 1990s. In a prelude and three chapters, this dissertation traces the trajectory from Väterliteratur to the Generationenromane through readings of Bernward Vesper’s Die Reise (1977), Christoph Meckel’s Suchbild. Über meinen Vater (1980), Ruth Rehmann’s Der Mann auf der Kanzel (1979), Uwe Timm’s Am Beispiel meines Bruders (2003), Stephan Wackwitz’s Ein unsichtbares Land (2003), Monika Maron’s Pawels Briefe (1999), and Barbara Honigmann’s Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben (2004). I read these texts as examples of genealogical writing, in which protagonists seek to position themselves in relation to their family histories through the construction of family narrative. The formal similarities between the two trends – (inter)textual dialogue, hybridity of prose style, vignette or essayistic structure – cast their underlying differences into greater relief. While the author-narrators of Väterliteratur seek to reach a definitive conclusion regarding the question of the father’s complicity in Nazism, the authors of Generationenromane allow for greater nuance in categories such as victim and perpetrator. In both cases, however, the subjectivity of the individual protagonist shapes his or her engagement of the family past, as they seek to negotiate between personal family relationships and public discourses of collective memory in contemporary Germany. Table of Contents Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ iv Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 I. The Väterliteratur Trend around 1980...................................................................................................4 II. The Generationenromane Trend around 2000 ...................................................................................12 III. Reading Väterliteratur with the Generationenromane .....................................................................20 IV. Väterliteratur and the Generationenromane as Acts of Memory ..................................................29 Prelude: Bernward Vesper’s Die Reise..........................................................................................33 I. The Aesthetics of Authenticity: Die Reise and Neue Subjektivität .....................................................36 II. Family Politics ....................................................................................................................................41 III. Conclusion: Die Reise as a Precursor to Väterliteratur.....................................................................49 Chapter 1: Perspectives on the Father: Christoph Meckel’s Suchbild. Über meinen Vater, Ruth Rehmann’s Der Mann auf der Kanzel and the Väterliteratur Trend in West German Literature.52 I. Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................52 Christoph Meckel and Ruth Rehmann: Generational Differences, Narrative Similarities .................54 II. Identity Formation and the Role of the Father....................................................................................58 Setting the Stage: Opening Vignettes in Suchbild and Der Mann auf der Kanzel..............................59 Painting the Family Portrait: Meckel’s Suchbild ................................................................................63 Painting the Family Portrait: Rehmann’s Der Mann auf der Kanzel..................................................67 III. Narrating Complicity.........................................................................................................................72 Constructing Complicity in Meckel’s Suchbild: “Die Verrohung des Offiziers” ..............................73 Questioning Complicity in Rehmann’s Der Mann auf der Kanzel: “Mein Vater war anders” .........83 IV. Complicating the Picture: Countercurrents to the Primary Narratives of Suchbild and Der Mann auf der Kanzel................................................................................................................................................94 Journals as Evidence: Suchbild ...........................................................................................................95 Witness Testimony: Der Mann auf der Kanzel.................................................................................103 Shifts in Narrative Voice: Poetic and Reflexive Moments in Suchbild ............................................109 Conversations about Complicity: Der Mann auf der Kanzel............................................................114 V. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................120 i Chapter 2: Writing the Family Ghosts. Masculinity, Narrative Voice, and Uncanny Genealogy in Stephan Wackwitz’s Ein unsichtbares Land and Uwe Timm’s Am Beispiel meines Bruders ....123 I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................123 II. Intergenerational Conflict and Resolution........................................................................................126 III. Reconciling Masculinities ...............................................................................................................133 “Zu viel unter Frauen”: Masculinity in Am Beispiel meines Bruders...............................................134 Masculine Roots: Ein unsichtbares Land .........................................................................................139 IV. Certain and Uncertain Narrators......................................................................................................144 The Questioning Narrator of Am Beispiel meines Bruders...............................................................145 Narrator Trouble: Ein unsichtbares Land .........................................................................................151 V. Phantoms, Ghosts, and Other Mysteries: The Uncanny in Family History......................................158 An Uncanny Return: Ghosts and Possession in Am Beispiel meines Bruders..................................158 A History of Haunting in Ein unsichtbares Land .............................................................................167 VI. Conclusion: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators ...............................................................................180 Chapter 3: “Die Geschichte wird nicht umgeschrieben.” Monika Maron’s Pawels Briefe and Barbara Honigmann’s Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben ...............................................................183 I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................183 A GDR Generation: Monika Maron and Barbara Honigmann .........................................................186 II. Genealogical Interventions ...............................................................................................................191 The Grandfather as “Wunschvater” in Pawels Briefe.......................................................................192 Jewish Genealogy in Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben .......................................................................200 Disruptions in Genealogy..................................................................................................................207 III. Family Politics: Conflict and Confrontation ...................................................................................210 Reconnecting Generations: Pawels Briefe ........................................................................................211 A Cultural Family Divide: Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben ..............................................................216 The Political Family Quarrel in Pawels Briefe .................................................................................219 The Political Family Quarrel in Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben.......................................................224