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Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Mann – works by these giants of German literary history line
the bookshelves of most well-educated Germans. Beside them are found writings by the most important German authors of the
last 50 years – Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, Peter Weiss. This latter group of post-war authors, many of them members
of the influential "Group 47" school, shaped perception and society after 1945. They also paved the way for the political
writers of the 1968 student movement and their realist documentary writing style. In the post-war period, German literature
was almost as integral to public dialog as it was at the beginning of the 20th century, when Berlin
was a mecca for young authors, including such prominent figures as Alfred Döblin, Hermann Hesse, Robert Musil and Thomas and
Heinrich Mann.
In recent years, Germany's post-war authors have given way to the so-called “generation of
1978 and 1989.” These younger authors are no longer consumed by great political debates, and instead, tend to take a
cool, self-assured look at today's world or create cynical cults of youth. Moreover, this new generation of authors favors
a blend of personal and intellectual themes to create a crossover genre that breaks with the traditional distinctions between
“serious” and popular literature – a difference that has long been prized and sustained by many German intellectuals.
The late W.G. Sebald should be mentioned here who was acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic
for his stunning novels, which blended memoir, travel and historical genres with elegiac lyricism. So should Georg Klein,
author of sharp-witted detective novels and Ingo Schulze,
whose book Simple Stories: A Novel was a huge success both on the bestseller lists and with the critics. Judith Herrmann’s
Berlin stories have struck a chord with a cosmopolitan readership,
as has Thomas Brussig's Sonnenallee (Sun Boulevard) which has been made into a movie. Herrmann is representative of the new
"pop literature" trend that focuses on stories of everyday life, mostly by authors under age 35, for readers of the same age.
Other well-known representatives of this emerging German genre include Feridun Zaimoglu (Kanak Sprak), Elke Naters (Könniginnen
[Queens]), Christian Kracht (Faserland and 1979), and Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre (Soloalbum).
Many of these authors have settled in Berlin, which quickly emerged as Germany’s literary capital after German unification,
in 1990. With its turbulent past, fusion of eastern and western cultures and evidence of a "simultaneity of non-simultaneous
events," in the words of journalist Karoline Rebling, the German capital is the perfect setting for all kinds of fantasies
about realizing the Bohemian dream.
Despite this swell of younger talent, the great names of
postwar literature are still very much a force in the contemporary German book world. Günter Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize
for literature for his lifework in 1999 — the eighth German author to be so honored. His works Die Blechtrommel (The
Tin Drum) and Die Rättin (The Rat) are still bestsellers, as are his latest novel Im Krebsgang (not available in English as
of August 2002) and Mein Jahrhundert (My Century), a collection of short stories. The writer and philosopher Hans Magnus Enzensberger
publishes his popular but socio-critical novels. Christa Wolf, East Germany's
most prominent novelist is popular for her concept of "subjectivity and authenticity" and has established herself as one of
the most critical observers of reunified Germany.
Martin Walser, a satirical and critical former member of the "Group 47," still provokes controversy with his works. The latest
and most heated debate was stirred by his novel Tod eines Kritikers (Death of a Critic), in which many readers perceived anti-Semitic
overtones.
SOURCE: germany.info
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