Diesseits und jenseits der Oder:Judith Hermanns literarische Auseinandersetzung mit Theodor Fontane in Sommerhaus, später

Judith Hermann's works have attracted considerable criticism for their supposedly slight portrayal of passively drifting characters and for their alleged failure to engage with the socio-political realities of contemporary life in the Berlin Republic. Only very recently have scholars paid attention to the hidden concern with memory expressed in her books, and have set out to examine their intertextual depth. This paper explores these previously neglected historical references in Summerhouse, later and analyses the book's intricate intertextual allusions with specific reference to Theodor Fontane's works. It examines how the tentative existence, which Hermann's characters experience, is the product of a hesitant and fruitless confrontation with questions of German history and nationhood. Using pervasive water imagery, Hermann shows present-day Germany as a continually contested territory with a fluid identity shaped by an abundance of conflicting narratives. In this context, the allusions to Fontane as a representative of the Wilhelminian period serve as references to a continuing German tradition of repression and marginalisation. At the same time, Hermann recognises Fontane's ambivalent political stance combining elements of social criticism with a general endorsement of social order. Ultimately, the seemingly indifferent attitude of Hermann's characters and the elegiac style used to portray them, emerge as a distancing mechanism that functions as a postmodern variant of Fontane's irony and is shaped by a similar sense of skepticism towards developments in German society and national history. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

„Fern im dänischen Norden ein Bruder”:Thomas Mann und Herman Bang. Eine literarische Spurensuche

This study for the first time demonstrates and analyses the full extent of Danish impressionist writer Herman Bang’s influence on one of Germany’s major authors, Thomas Mann. Mann was an avid reader of Bang’s works and he regarded the Scandinavian writer as a kindred spirit, a “brother up north”, who “taught [him] much”. It has previously been accepted that Bang was an inspiration for Mann in his formative years. However, as this study conclusively shows, references to Bang’s works occur throughout Mann’s writings, from the early novellas to the late novels. The book argues that Mann was not only impressed by Bang’s highly individual style of impressionist writing but that his fascination for Bang’s works was to a large extent based on this author’s recurrent depiction of decadence, his handling of artistic motifs and his treatment of erotic themes. Bang’s topical focus on the problematically isolated lives of artists and aristocrats as well as his insights on the destructive nature of love and sexuality – particularly of homoerotic desire – were surprisingly similar to Mann’s own views on these topics and yet provoked him to produce heavily referenced counter versions of Bang’s works. This phenomenon is explored in the context of Mann’s struggle with his own homosexuality and the attraction that death and decadence exerted over him. Most of Mann’s writings are in that way indebted to Bang. In addition, Mann’s frequent use of homoerotic subtexts and his depiction of female characters were noticeably influenced by Bang’s literary techniques. All these different, yet closely interlinked, aspects of Mann’s creative appropriation of Bang’s works are analysed and discussed in this study. To conclude, Mann’s references to Bang’s works are schematised and an attempt is made to characterise Mann’s intertextual practice in general in the context of his famous use of irony.