European Memories of the Second World War

Helmut Peitsch, Charles Burdett, Claire Gorrara

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781845451585, 9781571819369
• eBook ISBN: 9781782389637
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

During the fifty years since the end of hostilities, European literary memories of the war have undergone considerable change, influenced by the personal experiences of writers as well as changing political, social, and cultural factors. This volume examines changing ways of remembering the war in the literatures of France, Germany, and Italy; changes in the subject of memory, and in the relations between fiction, autobiography, and documentary, with the focus being on the extent to which shared European memories of the war have been constructed.

Table of contents

• EUROPEAN MEMORIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION
• PART I. THE GERMAN SOLDIER’S MEMORY
• 1. PRIVATE AND PUBLIC FILTERS: MEMORIES OF WAR IN HEINRICH BÖLL’S FICTION AND NONFICTION
• PART II. THE RESISTANCE MEMORY
• 2. ORDINARY HEROINES: RESISTANCE AND ROMANCE IN THE WAR FICTION OF ELSA TRIOLET
• 3. ‘THIS BOOK DOES NOT WANT TO BE A WORK OF ART. THIS BOOK IS TRUTH. ’THE DIARIES OF RUTH ANDREAS-FRIEDRICH
• 4. A WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY IN GIOVANNA ZANGRANDI’S RESISTANCE NARRATIVES
• The Male Resister
• 5. VERCORS – WRITING THE UNSPEAKABLE: FROM LE SILENCE DE LA MER (1942) TO LA PUISSANCE DU JOUR (1951)
• 6. ‘A HISTORY FULL OF HOLES’? FRANCE AND THE FRENCH RESISTANCE IN THE WORK OF STEPHAN HERMLIN
• 7. WAR, CIVIL WAR AND THE PROBLEM OF VIOLENCE IN CALVINO AND PAVESE
• 8. IMAGINING LOSERS IN BUFALINO’S DICERIA DELL’UNTORE
• PART III. THE FASCIST’S MEMORY
• 9. MEMORY AND CHRONICLE: LOUIS-FERDINAND CÉLINE AND THE D’UN CHÂTEAU L’AUTRE TRILOGY
• 10. PORTRAIT OF THE POET AS A DEAD MAN. ERNST JÜNGER’S WRITING IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR: STRAHLUNGEN
• 11. CHANGING IDENTITIES THROUGH MEMORY: MALAPARTE’S SELF-FIGURATIONS IN KAPUTT
• PART IV. THE VICTIM’S MEMORY
• 12. REVIEWING MEMORY: WIESEL, TESTIMONY AND SELF-READING
• 13. PRIMO LEVI. THE DUTY OF MEMORY
• 14. LA DOULEUR: DURAS, AMNESIA AND DESIRE
• 15. MYTH, MEMORY, TESTIMONY, JEWISHNESS IN GRETE WEIL’S MEINE SCHWESTER ANTIGONE
• PART V. THE MEDIA OF MEMORY: MAY 1968 AND CINEMA
• 16. L’ARMÉE DES OMBRES AND LE CHAGRIN ET LA PITIÉ: RECONFIGURATIONS OF LAW, LEGALITIES AND THE STATE IN POST-1968 FRANCE
• 17. ALEXANDER KLUGE:GERMANY – AN EXPERIENCE OF WORDS AND IMAGES
• 18. FASCISM AND ANTI-FASCISM REVIEWED: GENERATIONS, HISTORY AND FILM IN ITALY AFTER 1968
• PART VI. WOMEN’S WRITING AND THE QUEST FOR THE FATHER
• 19. REMEMBERING THE COLLABORATING FATHER IN MARIE CHAIX’S LES LAURIERS DU LAC DE CONSTANCE AND EVELYNE LE GARREC’S LA RIVE ALLEMANDE
• 20. SEEING THE FATHER: MEMORY AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN ELISABETH PLESSEN’S MITTEILUNG AN DEN ADEL
• 21. INTIMATIONS OF PATRIARCHY: MEMORIES OF WARTIME JAPAN INDACIA MARAINI’S BAGHERIA
• PART VII. A CHILD’S MEMORY
• 22. A CHILD IN TIME: PATRICK MODIANO AND THE MEMORY OF THE OCCUPATION
• 23. CHILDHOOD MEMORY AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY: CHRISTA WOLF’S KINDHEITSMUSTER
• 24. STRATEGIES FOR REMEMBERING: AUSCHWITZ, MOTHER AND WRITING IN EDITH BRUCK
• PART VIII. AFTER THE COLD WAR: EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND THE POLITICS OF MEMORY
• 25. TRAUMA AND ABSENCE
• 26. NONRATIONAL DISCOURSE IN A WORK OF REASON: PETER WEISS’S ANTI-FASCIST NOVEL DIE ÄSTHETIK DES WIDERSTANDS
• 27. FIFTY YEARS ON: GERMAN CHILDREN OF THE WAR REMEMBER
• 28. MEMORIES OF RESISTANCE, RESISTANCES OF MEMORY
• NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX