After the Wall
Autobiography
- English Post-Reunification Autobiography Websites
- German Post-Reunification Autobiography Websites
- Post-Reunification Autobiography Secondary Literature
English Post-Reunification Autobiography Websites:
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5432
Dennis Tate’s article in The Literary Encyclopedia offers background on German author Günter de Bruyn.
http://www.timothygartonash.com/
The homepage of Timothy Garton Ash, whose experience of the events of 1989 are a focus of his work, contains essays and an insightful interview in German.
German Post-Reunification Autobiography Websites:
http://www.elfriede-bruening.de/
Elfriede Brüning’s website contains a biography, details of publications and a series of brief film clips.
Thomas Brussig’s website, which includes interviews regarding the author’s DDR background and work.
Noteworthy Content:
http://www.thomasbrussig.de/Seiten/Interviews/inte1.htm
Nachdenken über Thomas B.
http://www.thomasbrussig.de/Seiten/Interviews/inte2.htm
Wer saß unten im System? Icke!
http://www.thomasbrussig.de/Seiten/Interviews/inte4.htm
“Gefeit vor Utopien”
http://www.thomasbrussig.de/Seiten/Interviews/inte6.htm
Herr Brussig, was halten Sie von Nostalgie?
http://www.thomasbrussig.de/Seiten/Interviews/inte7.htm
“Jubelfeiern wird’s geben”
http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/humboldt-vl/de-bruyn-guenter/PDF/Bruyn.pdf
‘Günter de Bruyn: Altersbetrachtungen über den alten Fontane’. The speeches given at the awarding ceremony of the honorary doctorate degree to Günter de Bruyn by the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1998.
http://www.janahensel.de/cms/jana-hensel/
Jana Hensel, former citizen of the DDR and author, the site features articles regarding the contemporary state of relations between citizens of the former East and West German states.
Noteworthy Content:
Denn wir sind anders
http://www.janahensel.de/cms/jana/hensel/2010/09/23/wir-sind- anders/
Der fremde Blick
http://www.janahensel.de/cms/jana/hensel/2009/11/12/der-fremde-blick/
Paar für Paar zur Einheit
http://www.janahensel.de/cms/jana/hensel/2004/12/28/paar-fur-paar-zur-einheit/
http://www.janahensel.de/blog/
Jana Hensel’s Blog ‘Achtung Zone’, which is also the title of her most recent publication, contains a number of articles published relating to the Wiedervereinigung and East German identity since the Wende.
http://www.zeit.de/2000/11/200011.p-klein_.xml
‘Eine grandiose Täuschung’ in Die Zeit Online (2000). Volker Ullrich’s article was written in response to the publication of the autobiography of famous East German historian, Fritz Klein, Drinnen und draußen.
Post-Reunification Autobiography Secondary Literature:
Printable PDF-version of the bibliography
This is in no way an exhaustive list of secondary literature on Autobiography. The emphasis is primarily on English language texts and on broad overviews or standard works as well as GDR-specific literature.
Andress, Reinhard, ‘Mittel der (Selbst-) Erkenntnis in Günter de Bruyns zweitiliger Autobiographie Zwischenbilanz und Vierzig Jahre’ in Glossen 7 (1999). Stable URL: http://www2.dickinson.edu/glossen/heft7/andress.html
Bideau, Bernadette, Theorie der Autobiographie und ihre Umsetzung bei Günter de Bruyn (Bochum: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2008).
Brockmann, Stephen, Literature and German Reunification (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Bruyn, Günter de, Das erzählte Ich: über Wahrheit und Dichtung in der Autobiographie, (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1995).
Bruyn, Günter de. “Autobiographisches Schreiben.” Interview by Bianca Weyers. Sinn und Form 58 (Nov. 2006): 827-35.
Corbin-Schuffels, Anne-Marie, ‘Auf den verwickelten Pfaden der Erinnerung: autobiographische Schriften nach der Wende’ in Mentalitätswandel in der deutschen Literatur zur Einheit (1990-2000), ed. by Volker Wehdeking (Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 2000).
Cosentino, Christine, ‘Überlegungen zu Formen autobiographischen Schreibens in der östlichen Literatur der neunziger Jahre’ in Glossen 12 (2001). Stable URL: http://www2.dickinson.edu/glossen/heft12/autobiographien.html
Doerre, Jason, ‘The Post Reunification Aufarbeitung of the SED-Dictatorship’, pp. 34-56. Stable URL: http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Doerre%20Jason.pdf?bgsu1210612137
Evans, Owen. Mapping the Contours of Oppression: Subjectivity, Truth and Fiction in Recent German Autobiographical Treatments of Totalitarianism. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006.
Halverson, Rachel, ‘Unifying the Self: Günter de Bruyn’s Autobiographical Response to Post-Unification Germany’ in Glossen 9 (2000). Stable URL: http://www2.dickinson.edu/glossen/heft9/debruyn.html
Halverson, Rachel J. ‘Comedic Bestseller or Insightful Satire: Taking the Interview and Autobiography to Task in Thomas Brussig’s Helden wie wir’ in Textual Responses to German Unification, ed. by Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, Rachel J. Halverson and Kristie A. Foell (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2001) pp. 95-105.
Janson, Deborah, ‘Autobiography as a Means of Identity Transformation in Minority Literature of the 1990s’, in Glossen Sonderausgabe/Special Issue 15 (2002). Stable URL: http://www2.dickinson.edu/glossen/heft15/janson.html
Leeder, Karen, ‘“Vom Unbehagen in der Einheit”: Autobiographical Writing by Women Since 1989’ in Autobiography by Women in Germany, ed. by Mererid Puw Davies, Beth Linklater and Gisela Shaw (Oxford; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang AG, 2000)
Nelva, Daniela, ‘Erinnerung und Identität. Die deutsche Autobiographie nach der Wende’ in Gedächtnis und Identität: die deutsche Literatur nach der Vereinigung, ed. by Fabrizio Cambi (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann GmbH, 2008) pp. 31-43.
Reece, James R., ‘Remembering the GDR: Memory and Evasion in Autobiographical Writing from the Former GDR’, in Textual Responses to German Unification, ed. by Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, Rachel J. Halverson and Kristie A. Foell (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2001) pp. 59-75.
Reimann, Kerstin E., ‘Autobiographisches Schreiben’ in Schreiben nach der Wende – Wende im Schreiben? Literarische Reflexionen nach 1989/90 (Würzburg: Verlag Königshausen & Neumann GmbH, 2008) pp. 117-126.
Tate, Dennis, ‘Günter de Bruyn: The “Gesamtdeutsche Konsenfigur” of Post-Unification Literature?’ in German Life and Letters 50 (1997) 2. Stable URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0483.00051/pdf
Tate, Dennis ed., Günter de Bruyn in Perspective (Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam, 1999).
Tate, Dennis, ‘The End of Autobiography? The older generation of East German authors take stock’ in Legacies and Identity: East and West German Literary Responses to Unification, ed. by Martin Kane (Oxford; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang AG, 2002).
Tate, Dennis, Shifting Perspectives: East German Autobiographical Narratives Before and After the End of the GDR (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2007)
Warchold, Katja, ‘“Ich wollte eine Distel im sozialistischen Rosengarten sein” – Autobiographische Texte von zwei DDR-Jugendgenerationen’ in German Life and Letters 63 (July 2010) 3. Stable URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0483.2010.01504.x/pdf
Forthcoming Secondary Literature:
Evans, Owen, ‘History, Memory and Melodrama: The Return of the Past in Contemporary Popular Film in Germany’, in John Sundholm (ed.), Cultural Memory in Europe after 1989, (Palgrave, 2011), 40pp.
Evans, Owen, ‘“Ein Botschafter des Vergessenen”: Günter de Bruyn, the Chronicler’, in Axel Goodbody and David Clarke (eds), The Self in Transition: East German Autobiographical Narratives (Rodopi, 2011),16pp.