Focusing on novels by three contemporary German authors and one multi-author theater text, “A Multidirectional Europe” investigates how their writing responds to post-1989 memory paradigms in which post-socialist memory, in relation to the Holocaust and Second World War, has received asymmetrical attention. Conceived as an interdisciplinary and comparative study, this dissertation analyzes how narrative texts by Herta Müller (1953-), Nino Haratischwili (1983-), Saša Stanišić (1978-) and the play Ein europäisches Abendmahl [2017] frame the memory of socialism in relation to the Holocaust, considering the ways in which these authors challenge the larger post- or transnational discourse of a supposedly “unified Europe.”
Having migrated from Romania, Georgia, and Bosnia respectively, these authors, I argue, integrate post-socialist memories into German, and European, memory discourses through their play with genre, narrative structure, figurative language, and intertextuality. Although sociohistorical context is crucial in my readings for questions of memory, this dissertation seeks to transcend bounded definitions of memory, embracing a dynamic approach that is more inclusive in terms of the (hi)stories that are told and that contribute to the imagination of a heterogenous continent. Combining cultural studies, literary analysis, and memory theory, I move away from reading these works under the lens of autobiographical trauma, seeking instead to examine the negotiation of post-socialist memory through attending to generic and formal elements of the literary texts. My literary close readings methodologically draw on individual texts, while reflecting how literature is in exchange with other media and also present in the public sphere. Rather than a homogeneous entity, I show, the invoked Europe constitutes a multidirectional network.
Through my focus on contexts beyond East Germany and its experience of state socialism, I address the intersections of migration and memory and their relevance for contemporary and future Germany and Europe, while counteracting approaches that traditionally center West Central Europe in discussions of the continent. In dialogue with Michael Rothberg’s conceptualization of multidirectional memory, I furthermore contribute to ongoing debates on different histories of violence, such as the current discussion about the relation or interaction between the memories of colonialism and the Holocaust
