Description
(Text)
Ereignisse sind Erzählanlässe par excellence. Zugleich sind Ereignisse der politischen Zeitgeschichte seit mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert zu Gegenständen einer umfassenden Medialisierung und Visualisierung geworden: »Geschichte zerfällt in Bilder, nicht in Geschichten« (W. Benjamin).
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die auf den ersten Blick unwahrscheinliche Transformation dieser Geschichte in (literarische) Geschichten und zwar in Hinsicht auf sechs Ereignisse, die sich in der kollektiven Erinnerung zu prominenten Geschichtszeichen verfestigt haben: 1968 (mit Vietnam), 1977 (Deutscher Herbst), Tschernobyl (26.4.1986), 1989 (Mauerfall), die postjugoslawischen Kriege (1992 99) und 9/11. Fiktionen alternativer Zeitgeschichte gilt ein Exkurs. Die Textanalysen werden fundiert in einem systematischen und historischen Teil, der die Bedingungen zeigt, unter denen literarische Ereignisdarstellungen, ihre Literaturgeschichte und das Verhältnis von Literatur und visueller Geschichtskultur thematisiert werden können.
On the one hand, events are excellent opportunities for literary narrations. On the other hand, for more than half a century, political events in contemporary history have been so extensively visualized by modern mass media that "history is disintegrating into images, not into stories" (W. Benjamin).
The present enquiry analyzes the at first sight improbable transformation of history into (literary) stories covering six events in recent history which have become landmarks in collective memory: 1968 (and the Vietnam war), 1977 ('German Autumn'), Chernobyl' (26.4.1986), 1989 (Fall of the Berlin wall), the Post-Yugoslavian Wars (1992 1999) and 9/11. An excursus deals with alternative, fictional contemporary history. The studies are substantiated by a theoretical and a historical section, in which the conditions under which written accounts of contemporary events, their literary history and the relationship between literature and visual history or culture are examined.
(Extract)
On the one hand, events are excellent opportunities for literary narrations. On the other hand, for more than half a century, political events in contemporary history have been so extensively visualized by modern mass media that "history is disintegrating into images, not into stories" (W. Benjamin).The present enquiry analyzes the at first sight improbable transformation of history into (literary) stories - covering six events in recent history which have become landmarks in collective memory: 1968 (and the Vietnam war), 1977 ('German Autumn'), Chernobyl' (26.4.1986), 1989 (Fall of the Berlin wall), the Post-Yugoslavian Wars (1992-1999) and 9/11. An excursus deals with alternative, fictional contemporary history. The studies are substantiated by a theoretical and a historical section, in which the conditions under which written accounts of contemporary events, their literary history and the relationship between literature and visual history or culture are examined.
(Author portrait)
Dr. Christoph Deupmann ist Privatdozent und akademischer Mitarbeiter am Institut für Literaturwissenschaft des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT).
