Identifikationen eines Eckenstehers. Der Schriftsteller Wolfgang Weyrauch (1904-1980)
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Philipps-Universität Marburg
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Abstract
Self-images of a loafer. The author Wolfgang Weyrauch (1904-1980)
Abstract
In the history of literature, the author Wolfgang Weyrauch is known as a representative of German post-WWII literature. However, Weyrauch already began writing in the final phase of the Weimar Republic, and continued his literary activity during the Third Reich , between 1933 and 1945. This fact has so far found little attention. In this dissertation, I examine whether Weyrauch s career was typical for German writers of the post-war period. By answering this question I can investigate the true nature of the author Weyrauch and identify the importance of his literary work for German literature. In an attempt to reconstruct Weyrauch s life, I use an interdisciplinary method combining sociological and literary biographical research. Weyrauch s objective life history, and the way he experienced his life and talked and wrote about it, are mutually dependant. Therefore, this dissertation needs to transcend Weyrauch s self-images and self-interpretation to bring out the hidden (structural) meaning manifest in his autobiographical work.
Due to his biography, to the generation he belongs to, and to his association with literary groupings such as the Kulturbund zur demokratischen Erneuerung Deutschlands (Cultural Alliance for a Democratic Renewal of Germany) and the Gruppe 47 , Weyrauch is a typical representative of German post-war literature. His literary career has much in common with the development of several other authors, who did not write national-socialist literature, but were able to continue working during the Third Reich . However, after 1945, many of these authors similar to Weyrauch tried to cover up the extent of their literary production between 1933 and 1945, as they moved on to be regarded as representatives of post-war literature.
The wide range of his literary production cannot hide the fact that, at the end of his very work-intensive creative years, Weyrauch was a loser in the literary market. Only on the surface does Weyrauch s failure appear to be a timeless phenomenon that can affect any author whose commitment is not rewarded by success. The discrepancy between Weyrauch s formal ambition and his real output is rather a symptom of deeper-lying inner conflicts. Although Weyrauch was ashamed about his behaviour during the Third Reich, his shame did not lead to critical self-reflection. This fact ended up having a profound negative effect on his literary work after 1945.
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Created: 2003Issued: 2004-08-12Updated: 2011-08-10
Faculty
Fachbereich Germanistik und Kunstwissenschaften
Publisher
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Language
ger
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DoctoralThesis
Keywords
NachkriegsliteraturGerman post-WWII literature
DFG-subjects
Weimarer RepublikNachkriegszeitGermanistik / LiteraturwissenschaftDrittes ReichBiographie
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830
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Landzettel, Ulrike: Identifikationen eines Eckenstehers. Der Schriftsteller Wolfgang Weyrauch (1904-1980). : Philipps-Universität Marburg 2004-08-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/z2004.0507.
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This item has been published with the following license: In Copyright