Narrating Communism
Podium in the German Historical Museum, Schlüterhof | 29th May 2009, 16:00-17:30h
In contrast to the end of National Socialism, the collapse of European communism in Europe has yielded an abundance of autobiographical testimonies and patterns of 'confronting the past', that range from a self-critical turning away from the past to staunch justification. They are owed the necessity to biographically process the upheaval of 1989/90 and the experiences of the end of the socialist project - in short, to assimilate the political turning point with a personal-historical stamping of identity. Out of this tension between continuity and change have developed various patterns of narration, that place the end of the socialist project either at the centre or on the periphery of the biographical portrayal of life. The end of the socialist project tends to be treated either emphatically, or avoided completely. Since 1990, the GDR has been processed from various generational perspectives and in various textual forms in the autobiographies, the memoirs, and the narratives of artists, politicians, writers and academics. These texts contribute significantly to the determining of the GDR in the cultural memory. With discussion of literary autobiographies and autobiographical narratives emerging from different generations, this central event will follow up the narration of communism and will question in particular its significance to public remembrance, historical research and media portrayal.
Introductory talk: Prof. Dr. Martin Sabrow, historian, social scientist and Germanist, director of the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF), Potsdam
Table ronde with writers, who 'narrate communism', with
Dr. Jens Bisky, journalist and author, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Fritz Klein, historian, Berlin
Irina Liebmann, writer, Berlin
Herta Müller, writer, Berlin
Moderation: Jürgen König, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Berlin
The podium will be translated from German to English simultaneously.
