Monika Maron und Jenny Erpenbeck: DDR im Zeichen der Moderne
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Date
25/11/2014Author
Hans, Ariane
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Abstract
Literature by authors from the GDR has often been read with a focus on its sociopolitical
context ‒ before and after the fall of the Wall. This rather one-dimensional
approach has resulted in a lack of engagement with the more complex issues raised
in many of those texts. Frequently, they address broader theoretical questions and
delve into universal themes, which tend to be overlooked or sidelined.
This PhD thesis concentrates on a selection of post-Wende texts by Monika
Maron and Jenny Erpenbeck, two authors from the former East Germany. Starting
from the premise that both authors' oeuvres serve on one level as critical
investigations of the GDR and the significant aftermath of its collapse, I aim to
demonstrate that these narratives have more to offer. My analysis brings to light the
complexity of the examined works by addressing what it regards as their central
themes: the exploration of questions around the topics of Heimat and memory. This
research project draws attention to the texts' representation of underlying issues such
as dislocation and fragmentation, and in doing so it examines how both authors
depict concerns that go beyond the GDR and its demise. A key task is the analysis of
the ways in which Monika Maron and Jenny Erpenbeck portray the symptoms of a
wider ‘modern conditionʼ, a state characterized by instability and uncertainty. Based
on the concept of ambivalence, introduced to the debates about modernity by
Zygmunt Bauman in the early 1990s, this original comparative approach explores the
failure and the ultimate collapse of the socialist utopia as a paradigm for the
breakdown of the ‘grand narrativesʼ in modern, Western pluralist societies.
Thus, this PhD thesis illuminates how both authors position themselves in
relation to competing discourses about the GDR, and it simultaneously alerts the
reader to the texts' inherent complexity by revealing their strong ties to topical issues
regarding the much-debated term of modernity. Ultimately, I claim that Maron and
Erpenbeck set out to investigate the impact of larger processes of fragmentation, and
try to establish the possible role of and a ‘placeʼ for the individual that is exposed to
historical forces and the rapid changes of spatio-temporal parameters within
modernity, of which the GDR experience forms one part.