'Whose story?'

Continuities in Contemporary German-Language Literature. Edited by Arthur Williams, Stuart Parkes and Julian Preece.

These essays by British, German, and Austrian scholars explore the salient features of a literature reviving after a period of de-stabilization which was at once political and aesthetic. German unity coincided with generational changes among writers, reappraisals of the role of literature in an era of 'post-modern' challenges, and reassessments of the historical roles of Austria and Switzerland. While writers from the former GDR are shown to be pre-occupied with that past and women writers with women's status in patriarchal societies, the essays reveal a sophisticated literature of the 1990s which harnesses the aesthetic forces of post-modernism in powerful statements of moral and human commitment. Many of the essays address works which have not previously been the subject of scholarly analysis. The writers discussed include: Ernst Augustin, Jurek Becker, Hermann Burger, Brigitte Burmeister, Friedrich Christian Delius, Lilian Faschinger, Günter Grass, Peter Handke, Christoph Hein, Wolfgang Hildesheimer, Rolf Hochhuth, Bernd-Dieter Hüge, Alexander Kluge, Franz Xaver Kroetz, Reiner Kunze, Monika Maron, Heiner Müller, Sten Nadolny, Christoph Ransmayr, Gerhard Roth, W.G. Sebald, Verena Stefan, Gabriele Stötzer, Peter Wawerzinek and Ulrich Woelk. Papers presented at the fifth Bradford International Colloquium on Contemporary German-Language Literature held at the University of Bradford in April 1996. VI,406 Seiten, broschiert (Bradford Series of Colloquia on Contemporary German Literature; vol. 5/Peter Lang Verlag 1998) Mängelexemplar/near mint