`The essays evidence solid and convincing scholarship and
provide both a general introduction to an author not well known to most general and
undergraduate readers in the US and thought-provoking research for the experts.' (Choice) `The essays evidence solid and convincing scholarship and
provide both a general introduction to an author not well known to most general and
undergraduate readers in the US and thought-provoking research for the experts.' (Choice)
Jurek Becker was a rare figure in German literature in more than one way. As an Auschwitz survivor of Jewish origins he was one of the few German writers able to take a victim's perspective on the Holocaust, most famously in his first novel Jakob der Lügner, a world-wide success. As a GDR writer who came into conflict with the authorities despite a life-long commitment to socialism he was in the peculiar position of being allowed to live in the West while retaining his GDR visa. His work remains as a landmark of that state, with novels such as Bronsteins Kinder treating the problem of post-war Jewish identity and the legacy of National Socialism within a GDR setting. As a novelist Becker achieved the unusual feat of both critical and commercial success, but it was as a writer of television screenplays that he achieved his greatest fame. Series like Liebling Kreuzberg and Wir sind auch nur ein Volk were not only watched by millions but also, in the latter case, encapsulated the problems Germany faces in reconciling itself to the consequences of unification. Jurek Becker's untimely death in March 1997 deprived German literature of an irreplaceable figure who belongs, as Peter Schneider asserts in this volume, to one of only a small number of German writers of his generation who will be remembered a century hence.
This book is intended both as an introduction for the general reader and as a resource for the specialist. It contains a tribute to Jurek Becker specially written for this volume by his friend and colleague Peter Schneider, together with a revealing interview and a tabular biographical outline. The contributions on varying aspects of Becker's work are complemented by the fullest bibliography to date of both primary and secondary works.
Contents: 1. Jurek im Café Peter Schneider 2. Outline Biography Colin Riordan 3. Ich bezweifle, ob ich je DDR-Schriftsteller gewesen bin. Gespräch mit Jurek Becker Paul O'Doherty and Colin Riordan 4. Wie ich ein Deutscher wurde. Sprachlosigkeit, Sprache und Identität bei Jurek Becker David Rock 5. Becker's Bronsteins Kinder and the Question of Post-Shoah Jewish Assimilation in Germany Paul O'Doherty 6. Bizarr und still - und vorbei. Jurek Beckers Amanda herzlos als Rückblick auf die DDR Holger Helbig 7. German Literature and its Discontents: Jurek Becker's Warnung vor dem Schriftsteller Rhys W. Williams 8. Zoo Story? Jurek Becker's Television Script Wir sind auch nur ein Volk Moray McGowan 9. Bibliography Paul O'Doherty.
Contributors: Holger Helbig is Wissenschaftlicher Assistent at the University of Erlangen. Moray McGowan is Professor of German at the University of Sheffield. Paul O'Doherty is Lecturer in German, University of Ulster at Coleraine. Colin Riordan is Professor of German at the University of Newcastle. David Rock is Lecturer in German at the University of Keele. Peter Schneider is a seminal figure in contemporary German writing.
Dieser Band enthält ein bisher unveröffentlichtes Gespräch mit Jurek Becker aus dem Jahr 1995, sowie einen persönlichen Beitrag von Peter Schneider über seine langjährige Freundschaft mit dem 1997 verstorbenen Schriftsteller. Neben Essays von britischen und deutschen Germanisten über Aspekte seines Schaffens bietet der Band ausführliche Daten zu Leben und Werk sowie die bisher umfangreichste Bibliographie der Primär- und Sekundärliteratur.
Contemporary German Writers Series
Zeitgenössische Deutschsprachige Schrifsteller(innen)