Towards a History of "Vergangenheitsbewältigung": East and West German War Novels of the 1950s
The war novels which appeared in West and East Germany in the 1950s can be read as mediating between the official and the popular memory in the two German states. The public reception of the novels reveals the changing meaning of the term Vergangenheitsbewältigung. Whereas initially the verb bewälti...
Veröffentlicht in: | Monatshefte. - University of Wisconsin Press. - 87(1995), 3, Seite 287-308 |
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1. Verfasser: | |
Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
Sprache: | English |
Veröffentlicht: |
1995
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Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Monatshefte |
Schlagworte: | Political science Arts Behavioral sciences History Economics |
Zusammenfassung: | The war novels which appeared in West and East Germany in the 1950s can be read as mediating between the official and the popular memory in the two German states. The public reception of the novels reveals the changing meaning of the term Vergangenheitsbewältigung. Whereas initially the verb bewältigen (the formal mastering of subject matter) was only used by literary critics, in the late 1950s it entered first historiographical and then political discourse. At this time, in the West the centrality of 'war experience' as a key element in the construction of historical continuity was questioned: the unbewältigte Vergangenheit called for breaking with traditions. Therefore, the victims of racist and political persecution became the subjects of West German public memory too. |
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ISSN: | 19342810 |