Focus Spring 1995.tif VOL. 2 NO.1 SPRING 1995 t I o c U S on " .' I Sample COpy / Ansichtsexemplar I ITERATUR Edited by J. Gregory Redding David N. Coury Herman J. De Vries, J r. Published by the German Graduate Student. Association of the U niversity of Cincinnati Focus 011 LiteratilT is published semiannually (Spring & Fall) by the German Graduate Student Governance Association of the University of Cincinnati. Editor J. Gregory Redding Assistant Editor Herman J. De Vries Jr. Book Review Editor David N. Coury Copy Editors Garry Fourman Jeffrey Todd SUBMISSIONS Focus on Literafllr welcomes art icle submissions from 10-25 pages on topics related to German literary studies. Submissions are accepted continuously, but contributors must be students at the lime of submission. Manuscripts must be submitted in triplicate to the editor and should be prepared accord­ ing to the guidelines of the latest MLA Handbook. A self-addressed POSt­ card should accompany the manuscript for acknowledgment of itS receipt. BOOK REVIEWS Unsolicited book reviews or2·S pages will be considered for publication, yet Focm on LiteralllT prefers to work with an established pool of reviewers. Interested persons are encouraged to inform the Book Review Editor. SUBSCRIPTIONS Annual subscriptions are S15.00 for individuals and S22.00 for institutions; individuals and institutions overseas add S5.00 for additional postage. CONTACT ADDRESS Send subscription fees and all Other correspondence to Focus on Literatllr, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Cincin­ nati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0]72. Tel : (5 13) 556-2755 Fax: (513) 556-1991. COVER: wThe Book Fool" from Sebastian Brant's Sh,p of Foo/es, London, 1570, courtesy of the Archives and Rare Books Department, University of Cincinnat i Libraries. Cover design by Giana Morrell. Member S Council of Editors of Learned Journals ISSN 1076-5697 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This first installment in the second volume of Focus on Literatur rep­ resents an ongoing commitment by Dr. Judith Trent, Associate Vice President for Research and Advanced SlUdies, and the officers of the University of Cincinnati Gnduate Student Governance Association: Greg Kostr.J.ba (president), Phil Banona (Vice President), and Melissa Hardoby (Treasurer). We appreciate their enthusiastic suppOrt. Department H ead Suzanne Shipley and the entire faculty of Ger­ manic Languages and Literatures desel've our deepest gratitude for helping out in so many ways, big and small. Knowing that they re­ gard Focus as an integral pan of the department makes it easier for us to do our jobs. Special thanks also to (he following people for evaluating articles for this issue of Foctls: Ute Brandes (Am herst College), Roswitha Burwick (Scripps College), Roben Conard (Un iversity of Dayton), Friederike Eigler (Georgetown University), Erhard Friedrichsmeyer (University of Cincinnal~ , Katharina Gerstenberger (Un iversity of C incinnati), Richard Gray (Uni versity of Washington), Edward Har­ ris (University of Cincinnati), Timm Menke (ponland Slale Univer­ sity), and Margaret Ward (Wellesley College). from the editor articles Focus on Literatur Volume 2, N umber 1 Spring 1995 Con tents Spieglein, Spieglein an cler Wand, . , Wedekinds Lulu: Femme fatale par excellence? HElKE HOFMANN Grenzenlos und lustvoU. Uber das Poi itische und das Private in Gabriele Storzer-Kacholds Lyrik in Zeiten def Wende THOMAS JUNG Gender, Class.lewishness, and the Problem of Self in Fanny Lewald's Jenny: Jenny 's "schielender Blick?" T HOMAS MAST book review (ocus Recent Works by H ans-Jurgen H eise CHRISTINA L. BOl\'NER book reviews Adolf Endler. Tarzan am Prenzlauer Berg Peter Henisch. Vorn W~mschJ lndianer zu werden Andreas Neumeister. Ausdetllschen 11 31 51 57 S9 64 Christoph H ein. Exek,tlion eines Kalbes Patrick Roth. Johnny Shines Eberhard H afner. Vergoldung deT Innenhalll loge Merkel. Atts den Geleisen Uwe T imm. Er.t.iih/en Itnd kein Ende Reinhard Lettau. Fluchl vor Casten Bot ho Srraut1. UVohnen Diimmern Liigen Wolfgang Hilbig. Die A rbeit an den Olen Angelika Klussendorf. AnJaIl von Gliick Maxim Biller. Laud deJ· Vater I(nd Verrater Thomas Lehr. Zweiwasser interviews "Das Erzahlen muG wie Sand im Getriebe sein" GESPR.4.CH MIT UWE Tu.n.1 Gather a[ the River INTERVIEW WITH PATR!CK R OTH cont ributors announcements 67 69 71 74 77 79 83 86 89 92 95 101 113 121 123 VI FROM THE EDITOR: The German-American Literary Relationship In 1786 Goethe packed his bags and headed south. The chronicle of his llalienische Reise has made Goethe's sojourn in Italy by far the mOSt famous among German-language writers, but many other 18th­ and 19th-century authors found inspiration in Greek and R oman cul­ ture. One may argue, however, that in the 20th century-especially in the postwar period- the United States has supplanted luly as the destination of choice for German writers. O f course America has long been a desirable destination for Ge rmans, but ove r the past 150 years the pull factors that have brought them to these shores have chan ged dramatically. In the 18505 Germans came to the ULand der unbe­ grenzten Moglichkeiten" in pursuit of economic opponunities or religious and political freedom. The German immigrants that thronged A.merica's points of entry in the 19th century have been replaced by the affluent tourists of today-German-Ianguage writers among them­ and the high ideals that brought the '48ers to America are now ove r· shadowed by tbe fantasy worlds of Walt Disney and H ollywood. Italy appealed to writers like Goethe as the birthplace o f the Re­ naissance; he and others were lu red across the Alps by classical aes­ thetics . [n a broad similarity, con temporary German writers cross the Atlantic in search of the birthplace of popular culture. The Ameri­ can aesthetic-if that's what we may call the post-modern pastiche of pop culture-is omnipresent. Rare is the urbanized society that doesn't wear blue jeans or listen to rock and roll , and in many countries­ maybe even the United Stares!- the Big Mac has a greater cullural influence than tbe Bill o f Rights. While some would seriously ques­ tion the aesthetic value of A.merican pop culture, there is n o denying its pe rvasive international influence. Some German writers bave travelled here in search of the (myt ho­ logical?) six-gun slinging, fast-food eatin g, elect ric-guitar playing America they know from the movies. Others bave found higher in­ spiration from "legitimate" artistic influences like Poe and Whilman, Stei n and H emingway. Whatever the connection, several methods of exp loring the literary relationship between the United States and the \/11 G erman -s peaking world hav~ evolved : o.ne n~ay an~lyze (he Amerikabild of one writer, examU1e the Amencan lIterary lOnuences on another, o r one may evaluate a third writer within the realm of Ge rman-American literature. This thi rd method is still evolving. For years the accepted definitio n of German-American literature required t hat it be written in German by an American of Ger~an­ speaking exlnlction, and that it dea l with so-called German~Amencan themes. In MonaLShefie 86 (1994), Jerry Glenn argues agalllsl such a restrictive definition-which would exclude the works of a writer like Norbert Krapf, who explores his Ge rman heritage in English­ language poetry. With wri ters like Krapf in mi nd, Glenn applauds Society for German-American Studies President Don Tolzmann's more recent definiti on , which has been revised to include writings in English. Yet there remains the proviso that the literature deal with "German-A merican themes." Glenn wonders: "Must the content of a German-American architect's work be 'German ' for it to qualify as a legitimate subject of research in the field?" (350). . Why worry about this? Because there are a number of w nters who may otherwise fall through the cracks, writers whose. works co uld enrich our study of literature, be it German or Amencan or Ge rman-A merican. Fo r example, how should one deal with Ursul a H egi, a German-born American wri ter whose works are written in English, yet set in the fictional German town "Burgdo rf"? H egi dea ls with German- not German-American-themes in her novel SLOnes from lbe River. Conversely, to what realm of research does ~rene Disc l~e belong? Dische was born and raised in New Yo rk but hves now In Berlin , where she toO writes in English about "German themes." Is H egi a German-American and Dische an American-German? And how should we talk about Patrick ROlh? Roth was drawn to America some twenty years ago by the Hollywood film industry. H e wriles in German and is published by Suhrkamp for a German readership, yet hi s works are not exclusively "Ge rman " in their thematics. l ndeed, they at times have American settings and incorpo­ rale aspects of American pop cultu re. In an interview in this issue o f FoOlS, Roth identifies the dilemma fac ing cril ics w ho auempt to clas­ si fy writers like him: '''I've been living in L. A. almost half my life. What am I then? German? American? I don't rh ink I'd be writing th ese books had I not lived here. America and Americans have shaped VIII my themes, my views ... , My foundation, my language memory I my view of the spiri t is 'German.' My ca r is 'American.' So is my view of the body, of th ings material. My view of the world" (11 8-19). Glenn makes a distinction between exiled German writers like Bertolt Brecht-who was never real ly "at home" in the United States­ and Thomas Mann, who became a US citizen and actively partici­ pated in American cultural and politica1life. Assessing whether a wri ter was "at home" in America is Glenn's "'bollom line for distingu ishing between those who became German-Americans and those who were here temporarily, either for a semester as guestS at universities, or for a year or a decade as refugees from political oppression" (352). Such an app roach would certainly inform discussions abom how to clas­ sify writers like ROlh or Rein hard Lenau, but there will remain writ­ ers who occupy a nether regio n between German and American lit­ erature. To determine if a writer is a legitimate subject for research, l sug­ gest that those of us interested in German-American literature focus on the reader instead of the writer. Any American may read Ursu la Hegi o r Norbert Krapf with interest, just as any German may enjoy Irene Dische or Patrick Roth. But those Americans with a special interest in things German-or those Germans with a broader knowl­ edge of America-bring another dimension to the Lekture and may win a deeper understanding of the works of these and similar au­ thors. Maybe Patrick Roth and Ursula Hegi will never be considered Gennan·American writers-and maybe rhey shouldn't be. But instead of disqua1ifying a writer who does not conform to every poim in an evolving defini ti on, scholars in both German-American studi es and even the broader field of American Gennanislik might be bener served by asking simply, "Is this author of special interest to us?" At Foct/J on Literalllr we suppOrt the assertion made by La Vern Rippley in the 1993 Yearbook of German-American Sllldies: "Instead of Ameri­ can literary scholars trying hard to outdistance their counterparts in Germany they ought to spend some effort on what is • American' about the Germanistik found tn this nortbern hemisphere" (3). Rippley lauds rhe German·American focus of volume 65 of the German Quar. terly: "In this particular issue are printed articles about literature ... without the usual implicit self-denial coupled to a self deprecatory IX assumption that if it is German literature we st~ld>:,. t~en we cannot admit of an American bias, interest or even cunoslty (3)~ We at, Fo­ cus proudly admit to such an imerest, but StOP shan of al~ A '~~ncaJ~ bias." Each issue will reflect our ongoing SUppOl~ for, ~radlllonal German scholarship, yet we consider it our .speclal miSSion to seek out writers who straddle the GermanI Amencan cu\runti ~un~ary. We invite the graduate students among our readers t~ submit ,l~'.~les, book reviews, and imerviews that challenge convent.lanal.definltlons f Germanistik and explore the specia l literary relatlO ll s\lIp between ~he United States and the German-speaking world. J. Gregory Redding