Humor, Satire, and Identity: Eastern German Literature in the 1990s (review)

In this handsomely produced, admirably researched volume, Jill Twark presents her socio-historical and culturally-based argument that the novels grounded in various forms of humor and written in the 1990s by authors originating in the GDR have "contributed to consolidating a distinct, Eastern German identity" (307) "within the larger German context" (6).

In this first book, rooted in her dissertation, Twark develops the theme of Eastern Germans "coming to terms" with the socialist principles of their past in the context of a capitalist present, capturing a historic moment of transition in literature.

Tracing self-irony and ironic realism as well as the picaresque and grotesque—a chapter for each—Twark analyses, in considerable detail, the contents of novels by ten authors from the former German Democratic Republic: Thomas Rosenlöcher, Bernd Schirmer, Jens Sparschuh (chapter 1); Thomas Brussig, Matthias Biskupek, Reinhard Ulbrich (chapter 2); Erich Loest, Ingo Schulze (chapter 3); Volker Braun, Kerstin Hensel (chapter 4). The emphasis is on post-unification novels, but Twark also contrasts them with the pre-"Western German colonization" (48) "GDR satirical tradition" (12) and draws on earlier works by the ten authors as well.

Methodologically Twark's text grows out of meticulous research, somewhat pleonastic treatment of detail, and definition of terms. Her sources reach backward and forward including Greek, German, and an abundance of other major philosophers, psychologists, and literary critics. Her footnotes range from the microscopic and idiosyncratic to philosophical and anecdotal digressions and mini-essays. My favorite is number 83 (chapter 4):

The name 'Nudossi' [GDR "Nutella"] sounds particularly comical from an English-language perspective, as it combines the English word 'nude' with the post-unification neologism 'Ossi' to signify 'naked East German.' The word most certainly did not have this connotation within East Germany, however, and most Germans will not catch this English pun

(253).

Such touches add spice and a sense of the author's individuality to what are sometimes rather tediously didactic explications of the novels in question (e.g. "four essential criteria" [7] "six categories" [301] and the like). The book's structure allows each of the chapters to stand independently, although Twark also weaves them together with on-going comparisons and contrasts.

It is, however, not entirely clear who the target readership is. Her own text is in lucid English and she is careful to explain such basic concepts as GDR (1). But then, quotations and the interviews with five of the authors, which make up the appendices, are in German without translation. For academics interested in specific authors and works Twark's discursive table of contents provides a clear guide to what her book offers, both topically (names of authors and works) and conceptually (categories of humor and arguments). This is some compensation for the lack of an index. Her 60 pages of works consulted are also quite systematically and transparently organized according to the structure of her four chapters on types of humor realized in the various novels.

The most valuable section of Twark's book is her forward-oriented "Conclusion," particularly the pages on the role of Eastern German artistic creativity in the twenty-first century through 2007 and her projections for the future. The book as a whole constitutes a satisfying answer to Twark's final question regarding the "difference in the GDR and postwall practice of humor and satire." She emphasizes "the works' position and function in the larger body of German literature and culture at the cusp of the twenty-first century." She asserts that the works "can shed light on" "the culture as a whole," because "these satirists contribute to a specifically Eastern German discourse of criticism and identity-building following the Wende. They represent a part of the explanation for but also a solution to unification's problems." Twark argues convincingly that through "laughter, Eastern Germans call the Western German order into question and thereby assert their existence in this dominant culture" (307). Literary humor has thus created...