I am studying novels by female authors born in the GDR in the 1970es (e.g., Antje Rávic Strubel) and explore how space and the traces of GDR are used in their novels. Working with Strubel’s novels has opened up unexpected and rewarding avenues of spatiality. Strubel has her own style in writing, where the textual tissue is layered and interlacing. The novels have similar central subjects, such as homelessness, desire, sexuality and are linked through real life places. The subjects of self, history, sexuality, and identity have become pivotal since they also manifest in spatial representations.
Publications from the project
- “Wasser schreiben: Landschaften, Begehren und flüssige Subjektivitäten bei Antje Rávik Strubel,” Transpositiones 4,2 (2025): 81-98, https://doi.org/10.14220/trns.2025.4.2.81
- (with Eckhard Schumacher): “Narrative Escalation and the Dynamics of Violence in Post-Reunification German Literature”, DIEGESIS 14,1 (2025): 1-18. Link