CoHLIT-21 Berlin Seminar on German Literature and the Holocaust

The next seminar of the CoHLIT-21 consortium is dedicated to German literature since 2000 and will take place (in a hybrid format) from 9–10 March, 2022 under the auspices of the ZfL Berlin.

The Holocaust and the catastrophe of WWII played a central role in the historical narrative/s that influenced the creation of German collective memory in the 20th century. In 1989, the reunification of Germany shifted this memory in various and, to some extent, contradictory directions, in which old and new issues regarding perpetrators vs. victims as well as questions of guilt, suffering, and shame gained dominance in the German historical narrative. Aleida Assmann described what she called “the emotionalizing of history” and showed how personal testimonies became a central element in the formation of the German historical narrative. This is also demonstrated in the realm of German literature that was associated with a “new paradigm.”

Since the turn of the 21st century, German literature writes and rewrites historical events connected to the Holocaust and WWII into a larger narrative of the German 20th century. What can we learn from looking at these literary repertoires (for children, young adults, and adults) from a comparative multicultural and multilingual perspective?