TRACES OF TURN, TRACES OF RIP. A STUDY ON NEWEST GERMAN 'TURN-TIMES NOVELS' (Slady przelomu, slady rozdarcia. O najnowszej niemieckiej prozie)

Years 2009 and 2010 are not only an incentive to scholarly and literary critical reflection on the so-called turnover-novels (Wenderomane) appearing in Germany over the two last decades, but also to a scrutiny of this often overused notion and a separation of the time-caesura from the thematic backdrop of the literature under discussion. The study presents selected German novels of the last decade, highlighting characteristic themes and the way inhabitants of the eastern and western part of united Germany perceive one another. One of the basic symptoms is the isolation of West Berliners and inhabitants of the former FRG, their lack of interest in the ongoing revolution on the other side of the wall. Even a programmatic transgression of the now non-existent border often ends in a strengthening of stereotypes and autostereotypes which have become some kind of protecting shield. On the other hand, the phenomenon of nostalgia for the GDR, present in the literary output and films of the 1990s acquires a new dimension - in the first decade of the 21st century the East German past is no longer idealized but viewed from a critical distance.