Identity And Writing: German-Jewish Narrative Literature Of Second-Generation In Germany And Austria

In the Late 80s of the 20th century, a group of younger German-Jewish writers came into sight in the field of German literature. These people are called"second-"or"third-generation"Jews in Germany and Austria, who are the offsprings of the Holocaust survivors. They described the Jewish life today in their works and took the existence of Jews as a topic. Since it had been a taboo in German-speaking countries that the words"Jews"or"Holocaust"were mentioned, any critiques about their writing were avoided in the previous Nazi-Land, unlike in USA, where provocative opinions were published more free. The situation was not changed until the 90s, when the younger Jewish writers began to be more and more frankly to their Jewish identity and showed their desire to talk in the public.Jewish Identity has also become the most discussed topic in the works of these younger writers. Although studies about the Jewish Identity have been talked about in China during the past decade, most of them were limited in the field of American Jewish literature. My attempt, to discuss the identity problem in the contemporary German-Jewish literature, would be great helpful to Identity study in China. Since every writer has different origin and their points of view are diverse, I choose three writers, who and whose works have achieved great attention in correlated study fields today.The dissertation consists of three chapters.In the first chapter, Gebürtig of Austrian Jewish writer Robert Schindel will be analyzed for example. As the most influencing element in Jewish identity, Holocaust has become a very important motive in German-Jewish writing. Schindel describes all kinds of Jewish characters in Austrian society after war in his novel, which are all living in the shadow of Holocaust, whether they accept their Jewish identity or not. Furthermore, the influence of the history diffuses into the relationship between the Jews and non-Jews and engenders a"negative symbiosis". The Jewish identity, which is originally decided by consanguinity and parentage, now has been given more significance by Holocaust.In the second chapter, Rafael Seligmann's novel Rubinsteins Versteigerung will be taken into discussion. As a Jew living in today's Germany after war, the writer shows more consideration about the rupture between the Jewish birth and the culture, which the Jewish identity can commonly refer to. For the young generations, most of them are assimilated German Jews and know much more about German culture than Jewish religious tradition. Strangeness is the only feeling what they get when facing the lost Jewish culture. But as Jews in Germany, where they are seen as a group which is different from other people, they can hardly integrate into Germans, and that always brings them into a dilemma by identification.Barbara Honigmann and her autobiographical narrative works will be comprehensive analyzed in the last chapter. In order to shake off the paradox between Jewish birth and the lost Jewish culture in Germany, the writer has moved to Strasbourg and returned to Jewish orthodox. But religious life cannot break off her affiliation with German culture. Confronting the abruption of Jewish identity and culture, the writer chooses to live on the border so as to be connected with two cultures, and finally finds her belongings in writing with German language and living in exile.