Contentious Memories: Looking Back at the GDR

by Jost Hermand (Editor), Marc Silberman (Editor), Gert Neumann (Contributor)

Who is remembering the German Democratic Republic, and how do they go about it? This volume of "contentious memories" brings together essays and critical responses in a look back at three aspects of GDR studies. It presents an opportunity for self-reflection on German Studies' past and ongoing engagement with the GDR and post-unification transformations. It seeks to evaluate old questions and raises new ones concerning the historical knowledge of GDR culture and our interpretations of it. Finally, it examines blindspots and self-deceptions of the past as well as those forming all too quickly in the present.

My friend Gert Neumann / Frank Hörnigk --
Blackout / Gert Neumann --
Gert Neumann : bio-bibliography / Marc Silberman --
Whose story is this? Rewriting the literary history of the GDR / Marc Silberman --
Response / Jay Rosellini --
Critical orthodoxies, old and new, or the fantasy of a pure voice : Christa Wolf / Julia Hell --
Response / Nancy Kaiser --
Literature as contested ground : a retrospective of GDR studies in the United States / William Maltarich, Alan Ng, Nancy Thuleen --
Looking back at Heiner Müller / Jost Hermand --
Response / Helen Fehervary --
From UFA to DEFA : past as present in early GDR films / David Bathrick --
Vergangenheitsbewältigung the gentle way? A response to David Bathrik / Sabine Gross --
Reconstructing the GDR canon of the 1960s and 1970s / Frank Hörnigk --
Response / Hans Adler --
Outing to Jurassic Park : "Germany" in post-wall literature : an essay against tiredness / Frauke Meyer-Gosau --
Comments / Carol Poore.

251 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998