Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic

Description

The profound political and social changes Germany has undergone since 1989 have been reflected in an extraordinarily rich range of contemporary writing. Contemporary German Fiction focuses on the debates that have shaped the politics and culture of the new Germany that has emerged from the second half of the 1990s onwards and offers the first comprehensive account of key developments in German literary fiction within their social and historical context. Each chapter begins with an overview of a central theme, such as East German writing, West German writing, writing on the Nazi past, writing by women and writing by ethnic minorities. The authors discussed include Gunter Grass, Ingo Schulze, Judith Hermann, Christa Wolf, Christian Kracht and Zafer Senocak. These informative and accessible readings build up a clear picture of the central themes and stylistic concerns of the best writers working in Germany today.

Stuart Taberner is Professor of Contemporary German Literature, Culture and Society at the University of Leeds.

Review of the hardback: '... the volume provides a keen schematic of the literary scene in Germany and brings together themes which, in dialogue with one another, amount to more than the sum of their parts.' Curtis Swope, Monatshefte