Description
Book SynopsisThis book provides a comprehensive analysis of the writing of Monika Maron. Her biography charts a complex relationship with the GDR state, from initial ideological identification to sustained, radical rejection. Situating its reflections on her work against the backdrop of a changing critical landscape, this analysis takes account of the re-contextualisation of her writing necessitated by the collapse of the GDR.
The author charts the development of a number of seminal themes in Maron’s œuvre. The search for an authentic form of expression in her earliest texts gave way to a focus on the writing and the rewriting of history. The demise of the political system in 1989 led to an exploration in her work of more intimate themes. Maron’s post-
Wende writing makes an important East German contribution to debates on memory transmission and generational forgetting. Her most recent novels are concerned with the rupture and the ultimate refashioning of biographies in a post-GDR age.
Rereading her texts in a post-
Wende light, the author explores the complexity of Maron’s relationship with the state from which she emerged and demonstrates how this complexity manifests itself in her writing before and after 1989. This study offers new perspectives on Maron’s work and illuminates the significance of her contribution to contemporary German literature.
Trade Review«The great strengths of Byrnes’ monograph are its evenness, coherence and clarity. It is carefully presented and elegantly written, providing a very good introduction to readers interested in Maron’s work and its relationship to the post-Wende context. For this reason, it will be a welcome source for those teaching contemporary German-language texts in third-level institutions.» (Gillian Pye, Germanistik in Ireland)
«Die Studie zum Gesamtwerk Monika Marons gibt einen guten Überblick über die Entwicklung der Prosa M.s, die im Kontext zunehmender Desillusionierung der Autorin im ehemaligen DDR-Staat zu sehen ist. [...] Dieses Buch [ist] ein willkommener und nützlicher Beitrag zum Verständnis des Werkes in seiner Gesamtheit.» (Silke von der Emde, Germanistik 53, 2012/1-2)
Table of ContentsContents: Writing herself out of the System: The Early Texts – Transgressing in Style:
Das Mißverständnis and
Die Überläuferin as Counter-Texts – Writing and Rewriting: The Problem of History in
Stille Zeile Sechs – Love and Loss after the Wall:
Animal triste – Exposing the Gaps in Memory: Forgetting and Remembering in
Pawels Briefe –
Lebensentwürfe, Zeitenbrüche: Biographers and Biographies in
Endmoränen and
Ach Glück.
