Combines an overview of academic approaches to "life writing" with case studies from crucial periods of twentieth-century German history. Life writing, a genre classification increasingly accepted among scholars of literature and other disciplines, encompasses not just autobiography and biography, but also memoirs, diaries, letters, and interviews. Whether produced as events unfolded or long after the event, all forms of life writing are attempts by individuals to make sense of their experiences. In many such texts, the authors reassess their lives against the background of a broader public debate about the past. This book of essays examines German life writing after major turning points in twentieth-century German history: the First World War, the Nazi era, the postwar division of Germany, and the collapse of socialism and German unification. The volume is distinctive because it combines an overview of academic approaches to the study of life writing with a set of German-language case studies. In this respect it goes further than existingstudies, which often present life-writing material without indicating how it might fit into our broader understanding of a particular culture or historical period. Contributors: Rebecca Braun, Magnus Brechtken, Holger Brohm, Birgit Dahlke, Pauline Eyre, Mary Fulbrook, Ute Hirsekorn, Sara Jones, J. J. Long, Anne Peiter, Joanne Sayner, Dennis Tate, Roger Woods. Birgit Dahlke is Professor of German Literature at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany; Dennis Tate is Emeritus Professor of German Studies at the University of Bath, UK; Roger Woods is Professor of German and a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, UK.

Kerstin Hensel is one of the most productive and successful young writers in Germany today. From the late 1970s onwards she has published in a wide variety of genres, although she remains best known for her novels, short stories and poetry. Her most important work to date is the story Tanz am Kanal (1994), which has received much acclaim and has been widely discussed. Hensel has won a wide range of literary prizes and scholarships. In accordance with the aims of this series, this book is intended both as an introduction for the general reader and as a resource for the specialist. Through a series of academic articles the volume analyses all aspects of Hensel's writing, including poetry, plays and prose. It brings together the most up-to-date research on her work, from Britain, the United States and Germany. The volume also includes a previously unpublished story by Hensel, and an interview with the author held during her period as writer-in-residence at University of Wales Swansea in September 2000. It concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.