Suicide in East German Literature

This first book-length study of fictional suicides in East German literature provides insight into the complex and dynamic rhetoric of the GDR and the literariness of its literature.The many fictional suicides in the literature of the German Democratic Republic have been greatly misunderstood. The common assumption is that authoritarian oppression in East Germany led to an anomalous abundance of real suicides, so that fictional suicides in GDR literature constitute a simple, realistic reflection of East German society. Robert Blankenship challenges this assumption by providing both a history of suicide in GDR literature and close readings of individual texts, revealing that suicides in GDR literature, rather than simply reflecting historical suicides, contain rich literary attributes such as intertextuality, haunting, epistolarity, and unorthodox narrative strategies. Such literariness offered subversive potential beyond suggesting that real people killed themselves in a communist country. This first book-length study of fictional suicides in East German literature provides insight into the complex and dynamic rhetoric of the GDR. Blankenship's underlying claim is that GDR literature ought to be read as literature, with literary methodology, not despite the country's politically and rhetorically charged nature,but precisely because of it. Suicide in East German Literature will be of interest to scholars of GDR literature, humanities-oriented scholars of suicide, and those who are interested in the complex relationship between literature and history.Robert Blankenship is Assistant Professor of German at California State University, Long Beach.

“Blankenship's exclusive focus on the literariness of GDR fiction and his dedication to appreciating this literature for its aesthetic value not only offer new insights into the texts he examines, but foster a better understanding of GDR literary history more generally. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW Blankenship's thesis that fictional suicides enable the transmission of a cultural counter-memory in East German literature is suggestive and produces some provocative insights . . . . GERMAN QUARTERLY The outcomes of Blankenship's sequence of analyses are, for the most part, very impressive. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES [A] valuable book. Blankenship is extremely knowledgeable, both on modern and older literature, as well as in the area of literary theory. His major aim to point to the literary qualities of GDR literature, or at least of selected works, is laudable as a counter to the tendency to dismiss every aspect of that now vanished country. JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN STUDIES] [I]ntellectually stimulating . . . . This study serves as a welcome complement to the understanding of fictional suicides as a realistic response to the dilemmas of everyday life under a Communist dictatorship. SLAVONIC AND EASTERN EUROPEAN REVIEW”

[An] intriguing and thought-provoking study . . . -- Stephen Brockmann MONATSHEFTE
From the starting-point of Honecker's Taboo speech in December 1971, Blankenship demonstrates how Plenzdorf, Heiduczek, Wolf, Müller, Muthesius, and Hein use the subversive potential of intertextual references to portrayals of suicide by authors who belong, according to culture-political doctrine, to the 'classical heritage' (Goethe, Thomas Mann, Shakespeare) or are excluded from it (Günderrode, Kleist). . . . Indicates the potential that the topic 'suicide' still holds in GDR literature. -- Paul Onasch GERMANISTIK
Blankenship's exclusive focus on the literariness of GDR fiction and his dedication to appreciating this literature for its aesthetic value not only offer new insights into the texts he examines, but foster a better understanding of GDR literary history more generally. GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW
Blankenship's thesis that fictional suicides enable the transmission of a cultural counter-memory in East German literature is suggestive and produces some provocative insights . . . . GERMAN QUARTERLY
The outcomes of Blankenship's sequence of analyses are, for the most part, very impressive. JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES
[A] valuable book. Blankenship is extremely knowledgeable, both on modern and older literature, as well as in the area of literary theory. His major aim to point to the literary qualities of GDR literature, or at least of selected works, is laudable as a counter to the tendency to dismiss every aspect of that now vanished country. JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN STUDIES]
[I]ntellectually stimulating . . . . This study serves as a welcome complement to the understanding of fictional suicides as a realistic response to the dilemmas of everyday life under a Communist dictatorship. SLAVONIC AND EASTERN EUROPEAN REVIEW

ROBERT BLANKENSHIP is Assistant Professor at California State University, Long Beach.

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