THE ABANDONED CHILD IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN LITERATURE AND FILM by Heidrun ...

305 Pages·2016·4.73 MB·English

THE ABANDONED CHILD IN CONTEMPORARY
GERMAN LITERATURE AND FILM

by
Heidrun Jadwiga Kubiessa Tokarz

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of
The University of Utah
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Languages and Literature
The University of Utah
August 2016
Copyright © Heidrun Jadwiga Kubiessa Tokarz 2016
All Rights Reserved
The University of Utah Graduate School

STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL

The dissertation of Heidrun Jadwiga Kubiessa Tokarz
has been approved by the following supervisory committee members:

Katharina Gerstenberge r , Chair 02/18/2016
Date Approved

Joseph Metz , Member 02/18/2016
Date Approved

Karin Baumgartner , Member 02/18/2016
Date Approved

Esther Rashkin , Member 02/18/2016
Date Approved

Maeera Shreiber , Member 02/18/2016
Date Approved

and by Katharina Gerstenberger , Chair/Dean of
the Department/College/School of Languages and Literature

and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School.
ABSTRACT

This dissertation examines the motif of the abandoned child as a symptom of
postwar German memory culture in German literature and film from the late 1980s to the
second decade of the 21st century. As part of German postwar memory culture, the
abandoned child motif emerged in the early postwar years and established itself in
German memory discourse as Kriegskind (war baby), while representing certain war-
related experiences of victimization. This study focuses on the change the motif reflects
against the backdrop of Germany’s unification, the surge toward normalization, and
globalization. The abandoned child motif in German cultural texts at the end of the 20th
and at the beginning of the 21st century is a threshold figure which is symptomatic of the
past as well as the present, of the victim and the perpetrator, and of suffering as well as
guilt. It therefore serves as a sensitive indicator of how these aspects of German memory
culture are negotiated against the backdrop of contemporary national and global events.
The works in Chapter 2 are anchored in the experience of postwar childhood
abandonment and parental conflicts. The abandoned child motif in these texts from the
dawn of and during the post-Wende years reflects attempts at breaking away from the
generational conflict and the West German postwar perspective. The texts discussed in
Chapter 3 fulfill the detachment from the second generation’s parental conflict by
creating a narrative construct that reflects a generational shift. The abandoned child in
these texts still emphasizes the familial connection to World War II and the Holocaust,
but reveals an increase in generational perspectives as well as Jewish victim perspectives.
The texts in Chapter 4 continue the trend towards the multiplication of perspectives.
Rather than the familial involvement in the past, the abandoned child motif in the texts of
Chapter 4 pertains to more general questions, addressing Germany’s role in facing the
global challenges of the beginning of the 21st century, all the while still considering the
country’s past.
iv
For Kaia and Gwendolyn
CONTENTS

ABSTRACT…...……..……………………………...……..…........................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………..………………………………...………….vii
Chapters
1 INTRODUCTION……………..………..………………………………………....……1
2 BEYOND THE SECOND GENERATION: TEXTS BY WENDERS, TREICHEL,
AND SEBALD……………....…………………………..………………………….…...41

Wim Wenders’s Der Himmel über Berlin.............................................................47
Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s Der Verlorene..................................................................77
W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz......................................................................................95
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...122

3 THIRD-GENERATION PERSPECTIVE AND FEMALE VOICES: THE
ABANDONED CHILD IN NOVELS OF THE 2000S….....…………………………..126

Katharina Hacker’s Die Habenichtse..................................................................133
Jenny Erpenbeck’s Heimsuchung........................................................................165
Julia Franck’s Die Mittagsfrau…………..…………..……………………...….183
Conclusion…………………………………..………………………………….196

4 HISTORICIZING, CONTINUITIES, AND A NEW GENERATION’S
PERSPECTIVE IN THE 2010S: ABANDONMENT IN TEXTS BY HERRNDORF,
KRECHEL, AND LEO…..……………………………………………………………..199

Wolfgang Herrndorf’s Tschick.............................................................................209
Ursula Krechel’s Landgericht..............................................................................226
Per Leo’s Flut und Boden and Der Wille zum Wesen..........................................251
Conclusion...........................................................................................................277

5 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................279

WORKS CITED..............................................................................................................285
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deep gratitude goes to my advisor Dr. Katharina Gerstenberger, who expertly
guided me through this project. Her excellent feedback and unceasing encouragement
gave me the resources to compose a research project of this size, and I appreciate all the
hard work and time she invested in helping me finish this dissertation. I regard her as a
model professional who has significantly contributed to my improvement as a scholar.
Other members of my advisory committee have greatly contributed to this study with
their professional guidance and constructive criticism. I would like to particularly thank
Dr. Joseph Metz for his invaluable mentor work in the early stages of this project and for
helping me refine my ideas about Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire. I would like to thank
Dr. Esther Rashkin for her feedback regarding psychoanalytical aspects and childhood
development, and Dr. Karin Baumgartner and Dr. Maeera Shreiber for supporting this
dissertation as members of my advisory committee.
For numerous inspiring conversations and their unwavering support, I would like
to thank Dr. Valentin Rauer and Veronica Peselmann.
Finally, I would like to thank my entire family and friends in Germany and the
USA for their love and support throughout all these years. My husband Pablo Tokarz and
my daughters Kaia and Gwendolyn deserve particular thanks for their unconditional love,
unending patience and support throughout this entire project and especially during the
most difficult phases.
CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In September 2015, during the year’s climax of Syrian refugees trying to seek
protection in Europe from their war-torn home, an image of a drowned Syrian child went
around the world. Like thousands of other refugees that year, the child’s family had
attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a rubber dinghy to reach Greece and
therefore the European Union. Yet the boat capsized, leading to the drowning of the boy
among other children and adults. In the public imagination, the image of the boy came to
represent the human catastrophe of thousands of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean
Sea on their way to Europe in particular, and the situation of refugees at the beginning of
the 21st century in general. The image had a remarkable impact in social media and
circulated under the hashtag Humanity Washed Ashore, describing the situation of the
child, as well as the refugees he represents, as abandoned by humanity (Humanity
Washed Ashore Huffington Post). Studies have shown how the image not only drew
attention to the humanitarian crisis surrounding the refugees, but altered the public
opinion of many Western nations regarding immigration and thus served as a means to
spur empathy toward refugees among Westerners (unfortunately, skepticism or even
xenophobia has been spurred otherwise as well) (Tragic Boy Aylan's Image Saw 'Refugee'
Word Outstrip 'Migrant' in Tweets – Study Press Association). The image of the dead
2
child quickly led to accusations about humanity’s failure in the face of human suffering.
Failure of humanity is most commonly associated with the Holocaust, explaining perhaps
why Germany is accepting refugees in numbers that far exceed those admitted by its
European and other Western equivalents. It is not far-fetched to speculate that rather than
coming from an untainted altruistic conviction, Germany’s political decision to open its
borders to Syrian refugees may still be a response to the country’s past.
The motif of the victimized child, which is so powerfully invoked in the picture of
the drowned Syrian boy, within the context of German cultural memory is inseparably
linked to the Nazi past. Originating in the experience of the German Kriegskind (war
baby), the abandoned child has emerged as a motif to describe perceived victimization of
Germans. Even though it underwent significant generational and political changes, the
motif of the abandoned child as a symbol of German victimization lasts into the
postunification period.
This study examines the abandoned child as a site and symptom of conflict in
contemporary German literary texts. By examining the motif of the abandoned child in
post-Wende German cultural texts, this dissertation traces the evolution of the abandoned
child motif as a symbol of German victimhood in texts written against the background of
the unification, Germany’s surge toward normalcy, contemporary global conflicts, and
immigration. Who, in these texts, receives the empathy the motif of an abandoned child
evokes, and how do this empathy and its receiver stand in relationship to Germany’s
past? With its origin in German victim discourse, the image of the abandoned child is a
complex motif that lends itself to evaluating Germany’s responses regarding
contemporary events and its relationship to its troubling past.