Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature and Cultural Globalization

257 Pages·2012·1.133 MB·English

by  Anke S. Biendarra

Anke S. Biendarra
Germans Going Global
Interdisciplinary German
Cultural Studies
Edited by
Scott Denham, Irene Karcandes and
Jonathan Petropolous
Volume 12
Anke S. Biendarra
Germans Going
Global
Contemporary Literature and Cultural Globalization
DE GRUYTER
ISBN978-3-11-028281-8
e-ISBN978-3-11-028291-7
ISSN1861-8030
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Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Introduction: Contemporary German Literature and Cultural
Globalization 1
1 Effects of Globalization on the Literary Marketplace and Contemporary
Authorship 19
Distinctive Features of Germany’s Literary Marketplace 20
Authorship: Changed Paradigms 23
Showing the Authorial Self 28
Fräuleinwunder 35
The Rise of New German Pop Literature 38
Fashioning the Authorial Self on the World Wide Web 43
Personal Web Sites as a Medium of Authorial Self-
Representation 46
Authorship 2.0: Stephenie Meyer 51
2 Globalizing German Literature: Literary Debates around the
Millennium 57
Debates among Older Intellectuals 59
“… ist alles so schön bunt hier:” Debates on Contemporary
Realism 65
Authentische Alltäglichkeit: Turning towards a Literature of the
Authentic Everyday 74
Ingo Schulze’s Simple Storys (1998) 76
Elke Naters’s Königinnen (1998) and Lügen (1999) 81
3 Brave New Work World: Narratives of the New Economy 89
Recent Developments in the German Economy 93
The Individual in Precarious Times 97
A Short History of Work Literature 100
Narratives of Work in the Aughts 102
The Aesthetics of the Surface: The Work of (M)Ad Men in Joachim
Bessing’s Wir Maschine (2001) and Rainer Merkel’s Das Jahr der
Wunder (2001) 103
Economized Bodies: John von Düffel’s EGO (2001) 116
The Readability of the World in Ghostly Times: Kathrin Röggla’s wir
schlafen nicht (2004) 120
VI Contents
4 Forms of Social Realism: Unemployment in Contemporary
Narratives 129
Sentenced to Idleness: Annette Pehnt’s Mobbing (2007) and Jakob
Hein’s Herr Jensen steigt aus (2006) 132
Flotsam of Globalization: Joachim Zelter’s Die Schule der
Arbeitslosen (2006) 139
5 Traveling Without Moving? Narratives of (Im)Mobility 147
Global Tourists in Judith Hermann’s Nichts als Gespenster
(2003) 153
Mobile Cosmopolitans in Gregor Hens’s Transfer Lounge
(2003) 157
Global and Local Violence: Gregor Hens’s Matta verlässt seine Kinder
(2004) 160
Hedonism Gone Global: Christian Kracht’s Der gelbe Bleistift
(1999) 164
No Happiness on Earth: Sibylle Berg’s Die Fahrt (2007) 172
Retreating to the Province: Florian Illies’s Ortsgespräch
(2006) 180
6 Coda: Piles of Authenticity: Narrating 09/11 189
Works Cited 201
Index 227
For Robert
I love it when you sing to me
And you can sing me anything

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude for the institutional support I received
over the years while conceiving this project and completing the manuscript.
TheAmericanAssociationofUniversityWomen(AAUW)grantedmeayearlong
American Postdoctoral Fellowship that provided me with crucial time free of
teaching duties to write drafts of the first two chapters. The Dean’s Office of
theSchoolofHumanitiesattheUniversityofCalifornia,Irvineaugmentedmy
fellowshipyear.TheOfficeoftheExecutiveViceChancellorandtheAcademic
SenateoftheUniversityofCalifornia,Irvinesupportedthewritingofthisbook
withvariousshort-termgrants.OneofthemallowedmetogototheDeutsches
LiteraturarchivinMarbacha.N.,whereIreadpublicationsnotavailablestate-
side.TheInternationalCenterforWritingandTranslationatUCIfundedatrip
toBerlinthatallowedmetoconductinterviewswithsomeoftheauthorscov-
ered in this study. Thomas Meinecke, Antje Rávic Strubel, Gregor Hens, and
TeréziaMoragraciouslyallowedmetogaininsightintotheircreativeprocesses
andenrichedmyresearchwiththeirperspectivesonthecontemporaryliterary
scene in Germany.
There are many people in German Studies and Germanistik whom I
enjoyed meeting and whose research influenced this book, not all of whom I
can list here. Apart from the many conference panels I had the pleasure to be
part of, symposia in Luxembourg, Leeds, and Berlin in particular gave me
insightsandinspiredme.Thankyoutotheorganizers,WilhelmAmann,Stuart
TabernerandLynMarven,JohannaBohleyandJuliaSchoell,andtheirrespec-
tive institutions for inviting me and funding my stay.
A heartfelt thank you goes to my departmental colleagues, especially to
John Smith and Gail Hart, for their guidance and professional wisdom. They
both read many chapter drafts, and their feedback was nothing but helpful,
constructive, and encouraging.
WorkingonthisbookwithDeGruyterhasbeenaverypositiveexperience,
andIthankmyeditorManuelaGerlofforhertrulyenthusiasticsupportofthis
project from our first e-mail exchange. The careful and critical readings of
the three editors of the series Interdisciplinary German Cultural Studies, Scott
Denham, Irene Kacandes and Jonathan Petropoulos, made this a much better
book.Iamgratefultothem,especiallytoIreneKacandeswhosetthebarhigh
with her rigorous scholarship and attention to detail.
My Doktormutter Sabine Wilke has become a friend over the years and
deserves a special thank you for having been a wonderful mentor and an
inspiring Vorbild. Katharina Gerstenberger, Imke Meyer, and Karin Bauer have
supported my work for years in various ways, and I am grateful to them.