National Socialism and the Shoah in Recent German Prose

Since Germany's reunification in 1990, German discourse on National Socialism and the Shoah has changed significantly. With the generation of the eye-witnesses disappearing, the third generation after World War II renegotiated issues such perpetratorship, guilt, and responsibility on the one hand, wartime-suffering on the other. During the last decade, German literature represented voices from different generations/groups. This seminar will examine literature by Grass (b. 1927), Klüger (b. 1931), Timm (b. 1940), Schlink (b. 1944), Biller (b. 1960) and Erpenbeck (b. 1967) to situate these literary interventions within the framework of characteristic debates of the last few years. Enrollment limited to 40.