Islands and insularity in the post-East German novel : public and private worlds / Janice Shersby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shersby, Janice, Author.

Series:

Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture ; v. 263.

Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture ; [263]

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

German literature--21st century--History and criticism.

German literature.

Islands in literature.

Privacy in literature.

Germany (East)--In literature.

Germany (East).

German literature--History and criticism.

Genre:

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

183 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Rochester, NY : Camden House, 2026.

Summary:

"Pathbreaking study of recent novels by former East German authors that contribute, by employing tropes of retreat to islands and insular private spaces, to the discourse of the individual vis-à-vis society. Thirty-five years after it ended, East Germany still arouses widespread interest. Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos, set against the backdrop of the country's collapse, recently won the International Booker Prize, and Katia Hoyer's history of East Germany, Beyond the Wall, was an international bestseller. Alongside this, tropes of islands or insular spaces have proliferated in German-language literature of recent decades, sparking critical interest. The present study analyzes these tropes in twenty-first century novels by seven authors from the former East Germany, looking at what they say about both the GDR and contemporary Germany through the relationships they depict between individuals and society. Retreats to islands and private, insular spaces in these novels suggest their characters' desire for autonomy and the creation of private "counterworlds" in the face of a public world that they experience as alienating, destructive, or compelling conformity, whether during the GDR years or in post-unification Germany. Drawing on a variety of literary theories to examine place and time in the novels, the study uses a range of psychological models to consider these works' explorations of the nature of the self and its interaction with the social environment. It argues that their authors show the negotiation of a stable sense of identity and meaningful forms of self-determination to be an enduring challenge for individuals before and after 1989"-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral) - University of London.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version Shersby, Janice Islands and insularity in the post-East German novel

ISBN:

9781640142435

1640142436

OCLC:

1540317798

Publisher Number:

CIPO000371853