Mapping the Contours of Oppression: Subjectivity, Truth, and Fiction in Recent German Autobiographical Treatments of Totalitarianism (review)

In an attempt to discuss autobiographical writings in the context of the totalitarian regimes of National Socialism and East German communism, Evans selects eight texts published between 1990 and 1999 and analyzes them in chronological order. Three texts, Ruth Klüger's weiter leben (1992), Grete Weil's Leb ich denn, wenn andere leben (1998), and Ludwig Harig's Weh dem, der aus der Reihe tanzt (1990), deal exclusively with the Holocaust and its aftermath. Uwe Saeger's Die Nacht danach und der Morgen (1991) and Christoph Hein's Von allem Anfang an (1997) focus solely on the communist totalitarian regime, while Günter de Bruyn's Zwischenbilanz. Eine Jugend in Berlin (1992) and Vierzig Jahre. Ein Lebensbericht (1996), Günter Kunert's Erwachsenenspiele. Erinnerungen (1997), and Monika Maron's Pawel's Briefe. Eine Familiengeschichte (1999) tackle memories of both totalitarian regimes.

Defending the genre of autobiography and its value in the global world, Evans shows that the form of autobiography is still relevant and deserves a thorough investigation. Drawing mainly on Paul John Eakin's work on autobiography, especially on How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves (Cornell UP, 1999), Evans discusses the relational forces that define the self (exemplified more prevalently in Maron's text) and the slippery line between fact and fiction that most texts exhibit due to the very fact that the depicted lives became stories in the process. As Evans shows, the variety of the selected autobiographical writings that ranges from more traditional autobiographies (de Bruyn; Weil) to fictional autobiographies (Saegers; Hein) reflect the fluidity and the limits of the genre. In this sense, Evans convincingly argues that this diversity does not allow for one normative approach. Although some of the authors strive for a 'subjective authenticity' in the sense of Christa Wolf's understanding of autobiography (Hein), and others classify their text as a novel (Harig), the way the authors employ fact and fiction varies considerably, and therefore, each text has to be treated as a discrete piece.

While the form of the selected texts differs significantly, the common theme that unites them is the context of totalitarianism and the way these authors come to terms with their own memories and experiences. However, the authors' positions during the totalitarian regimes differ even more significantly, and one has to wonder whether Evans's primary selection criterion was the form or the content and context of the writings he analyzes. While Harig tells the story of his indoctrination with Nazi propaganda, Klüger was at the receiving end of the Nazi persecution that shaped her future life. The chapter on Günter Kunert's Erwachsenenspiele, one of the best chapters in the book, bridges two totalitarian regimes, and Evans deals with both form and content in exemplary way. In this chapter, Evans does not rely exclusively on close reading but also includes useful contextual information that shows the breadth of his research.

Evans's book illustrates the extent to which individuals were affected by totalitarian regimes and, at times, how literature becomes a therapeutic process of keeping memories alive while at the same time imbuing them with hindsight reasoning, justifications, and doubts. The different texts discussed allow a glimpse into life under National Socialism and/or communism and do not claim to provide a historiographic account of these times. By the same token and by the very nature of the study, the map of oppression drawn in Evans's study is incomplete and requires substantial background information. The significant strength of Evans's study lies in the nuanced and careful interpretations of these texts that make his book a valuable contribution to autobiographical and German studies.