Between Guilt, Atonement and Disremembering – /Vergangenheitsbewältigung/ in Literature and Film since 1945 (Seminar)

From Kahlschlagliteratur to the verdict that poetry could not be composed anymore after Auschwitz; from collective guilt and charges against the Vatergeneration to the meticulous research of particular cases, literature and film gave crucial impulses for dealing with the German past. Lately, however, facts are changed into fiction, the downfall of Germany is turned into a movie, and the Third Reich runs as a “docu-soap opera” on TV. Is the time right for such fictionalization? And above all, is German society stable enough for this process? (This course may alternatively be counted to fulfill one Literature requirement.)

Required texts: Jurek Becker, Jakob der Lügner (Suhrkamp); Günter Grass, Im Krebsgang. Eine Novelle (Deutscher Taschebuch Verlag); Uwe Timm, Am Beispiel meines Bruders (Kiepenheuer & Witsch).