THE ABANDONED CHILD IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN LITERATURE AND FILM by Heidrun Jadwiga Kubiessa Tokarz A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Languages and Literature The University of Utah August 2016 Copyright © Heidrun Jadwiga Kubiessa Tokarz 2016 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL The dissertation of Heidrun Jadwiga Kubiessa Tokarz has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Katharina Gerstenberge r , Chair 02/18/2016 Date Approved Joseph Metz , Member 02/18/2016 Date Approved Karin Baumgartner , Member 02/18/2016 Date Approved Esther Rashkin , Member 02/18/2016 Date Approved Maeera Shreiber , Member 02/18/2016 Date Approved and by Katharina Gerstenberger , Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of Languages and Literature and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the motif of the abandoned child as a symptom of postwar German memory culture in German literature and film from the late 1980s to the second decade of the 21st century. As part of German postwar memory culture, the abandoned child motif emerged in the early postwar years and established itself in German memory discourse as Kriegskind (war baby), while representing certain war- related experiences of victimization. This study focuses on the change the motif reflects against the backdrop of Germany’s unification, the surge toward normalization, and globalization. The abandoned child motif in German cultural texts at the end of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st century is a threshold figure which is symptomatic of the past as well as the present, of the victim and the perpetrator, and of suffering as well as guilt. It therefore serves as a sensitive indicator of how these aspects of German memory culture are negotiated against the backdrop of contemporary national and global events. The works in Chapter 2 are anchored in the experience of postwar childhood abandonment and parental conflicts. The abandoned child motif in these texts from the dawn of and during the post-Wende years reflects attempts at breaking away from the generational conflict and the West German postwar perspective. The texts discussed in Chapter 3 fulfill the detachment from the second generation’s parental conflict by creating a narrative construct that reflects a generational shift. The abandoned child in these texts still emphasizes the familial connection to World War II and the Holocaust, but reveals an increase in generational perspectives as well as Jewish victim perspectives. The texts in Chapter 4 continue the trend towards the multiplication of perspectives. Rather than the familial involvement in the past, the abandoned child motif in the texts of Chapter 4 pertains to more general questions, addressing Germany’s role in facing the global challenges of the beginning of the 21st century, all the while still considering the country’s past. iv For Kaia and Gwendolyn CONTENTS ABSTRACT…...……..……………………………...……..…........................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………..………………………………...………….vii Chapters 1 INTRODUCTION……………..………..………………………………………....……1 2 BEYOND THE SECOND GENERATION: TEXTS BY WENDERS, TREICHEL, AND SEBALD……………....…………………………..………………………….…...41 Wim Wenders’s Der Himmel über Berlin.............................................................47 Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s Der Verlorene..................................................................77 W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz......................................................................................95 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...122 3 THIRD-GENERATION PERSPECTIVE AND FEMALE VOICES: THE ABANDONED CHILD IN NOVELS OF THE 2000S….....…………………………..126 Katharina Hacker’s Die Habenichtse..................................................................133 Jenny Erpenbeck’s Heimsuchung........................................................................165 Julia Franck’s Die Mittagsfrau…………..…………..……………………...….183 Conclusion…………………………………..………………………………….196 4 HISTORICIZING, CONTINUITIES, AND A NEW GENERATION’S PERSPECTIVE IN THE 2010S: ABANDONMENT IN TEXTS BY HERRNDORF, KRECHEL, AND LEO…..……………………………………………………………..199 Wolfgang Herrndorf’s Tschick.............................................................................209 Ursula Krechel’s Landgericht..............................................................................226 Per Leo’s Flut und Boden and Der Wille zum Wesen..........................................251 Conclusion...........................................................................................................277 5 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................279 WORKS CITED..............................................................................................................285 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deep gratitude goes to my advisor Dr. Katharina Gerstenberger, who expertly guided me through this project. Her excellent feedback and unceasing encouragement gave me the resources to compose a research project of this size, and I appreciate all the hard work and time she invested in helping me finish this dissertation. I regard her as a model professional who has significantly contributed to my improvement as a scholar. Other members of my advisory committee have greatly contributed to this study with their professional guidance and constructive criticism. I would like to particularly thank Dr. Joseph Metz for his invaluable mentor work in the early stages of this project and for helping me refine my ideas about Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire. I would like to thank Dr. Esther Rashkin for her feedback regarding psychoanalytical aspects and childhood development, and Dr. Karin Baumgartner and Dr. Maeera Shreiber for supporting this dissertation as members of my advisory committee. For numerous inspiring conversations and their unwavering support, I would like to thank Dr. Valentin Rauer and Veronica Peselmann. Finally, I would like to thank my entire family and friends in Germany and the USA for their love and support throughout all these years. My husband Pablo Tokarz and my daughters Kaia and Gwendolyn deserve particular thanks for their unconditional love, unending patience and support throughout this entire project and especially during the most difficult phases. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In September 2015, during the year’s climax of Syrian refugees trying to seek protection in Europe from their war-torn home, an image of a drowned Syrian child went around the world. Like thousands of other refugees that year, the child’s family had attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a rubber dinghy to reach Greece and therefore the European Union. Yet the boat capsized, leading to the drowning of the boy among other children and adults. In the public imagination, the image of the boy came to represent the human catastrophe of thousands of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Europe in particular, and the situation of refugees at the beginning of the 21st century in general. The image had a remarkable impact in social media and circulated under the hashtag Humanity Washed Ashore, describing the situation of the child, as well as the refugees he represents, as abandoned by humanity (Humanity Washed Ashore Huffington Post). Studies have shown how the image not only drew attention to the humanitarian crisis surrounding the refugees, but altered the public opinion of many Western nations regarding immigration and thus served as a means to spur empathy toward refugees among Westerners (unfortunately, skepticism or even xenophobia has been spurred otherwise as well) (Tragic Boy Aylan's Image Saw 'Refugee' Word Outstrip 'Migrant' in Tweets – Study Press Association). The image of the dead 2 child quickly led to accusations about humanity’s failure in the face of human suffering. Failure of humanity is most commonly associated with the Holocaust, explaining perhaps why Germany is accepting refugees in numbers that far exceed those admitted by its European and other Western equivalents. It is not far-fetched to speculate that rather than coming from an untainted altruistic conviction, Germany’s political decision to open its borders to Syrian refugees may still be a response to the country’s past. The motif of the victimized child, which is so powerfully invoked in the picture of the drowned Syrian boy, within the context of German cultural memory is inseparably linked to the Nazi past. Originating in the experience of the German Kriegskind (war baby), the abandoned child has emerged as a motif to describe perceived victimization of Germans. Even though it underwent significant generational and political changes, the motif of the abandoned child as a symbol of German victimization lasts into the postunification period. This study examines the abandoned child as a site and symptom of conflict in contemporary German literary texts. By examining the motif of the abandoned child in post-Wende German cultural texts, this dissertation traces the evolution of the abandoned child motif as a symbol of German victimhood in texts written against the background of the unification, Germany’s surge toward normalcy, contemporary global conflicts, and immigration. Who, in these texts, receives the empathy the motif of an abandoned child evokes, and how do this empathy and its receiver stand in relationship to Germany’s past? With its origin in German victim discourse, the image of the abandoned child is a complex motif that lends itself to evaluating Germany’s responses regarding contemporary events and its relationship to its troubling past.