Overview

Pathbreaking study of recent novels by former East German authors that contribute, by employing tropes of retreat to islands and insular private spaces, to the discourse of the individual vis-à-vis society. Thirty-five years after it ended, East Germany still arouses widespread interest. Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos, set against the backdrop of the country's collapse, recently won the International Booker Prize, and Katia Hoyer's history of East Germany, Beyond the Wall, was an international bestseller. Alongside this, tropes of islands or insular spaces have proliferated in German-language literature of recent decades, sparking critical interest. The present study analyzes these tropes in twenty-first century novels by seven authors from the former East Germany, looking at what they say about both the GDR and contemporary Germany through the relationships they depict between individuals and society. Retreats to islands and private, insular spaces in these novels suggest their characters' desire for autonomy and the creation of private ""counterworlds"" in the face of a public world that they experience as alienating, destructive, or compelling conformity, whether during the GDR years or in post-unification Germany. Drawing on a variety of literary theories to examine place and time in the novels, the study uses a range of psychological models to consider these works' explorations of the nature of the self and its interaction with the social environment. It argues that their authors show the negotiation of a stable sense of identity and meaningful forms of self-determination to be an enduring challenge for individuals before and after 1989.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Janice Shersby
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   Camden House Inc
ISBN:  

9781640142435

ISBN 10:   1640142436
Pages:   190
Publication Date:   17 March 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 ""Kunst ist Antwort"": Art as Counterworld in Matthias Wegehaupt's GDR Fable, Die Insel Chapter 2 ""Wie verteidige ich mich gegenüber einer feindlichen Welt?"": Resistance and Conformity in Uwe Tellkamp's Der Turm Chapter 3 Psychic Retreats on Hiddensee: Inner Emigration in Lutz Seiler's Kruso Chapter 4 Home and Heimat: Unreliable ""Islands"" and Critical Challenges to Insularity in Jenny Erpenbeck's Heimsuchung Chapter 5: Enduring Dislocations: Problems of Flight and Engagement in Monika Maron's Endmoränen and Ach Glück Chapter 6: ""Eine vorgestellte zweite Wirklichkeit"": Constructing Private Worlds in Antje Rávic Strubel's Sturz der Tage in die Nacht Chapter 7 Demythologizing the Island Trope in Judith Schalansky's Blau steht dir nicht and Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Author Information

JANICE SHERSBY is an independent researcher who holds a doctorate in German Studies from the University of London.

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