Narratives of the Expulsion in German-language Literature before and after the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Abstract
Memory Studies have examined the impact of the historical events of 1989 on (German) memory culture from multiple perspectives since the 1990s. The literary historian must ask whether the transnational opening that pressed the politics of remembrance after 1989 is also reflected in fictional texts of the same period.
This contribution is particularly interested in changes in narratives of the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II as presented in books published by eight German authors before and after the fall of the Iron yCurtain: Johanna Anderka, Gerold Effert, Peter Härtling, Bruno Herr, Gudrun Pausewang, Erica Pedretti, Ilse Tielsch, Gustav Wiese. Czech and German character constellations are examined in these texts to reveal a transformation from nationally related homogenization and particularization in the self-determination of both ethnic groups in early works (initially assumed for texts of the previous period) to a more differentiated representations of characters in later texts.
The study's main aim is to reveal both constants and changes in these narratives of the expulsion over time, thus offering an overview of narratives typical for each period and their modifications during the given decades.