Publisher's Synopsis
The Novel and the Nazi Past investigates a widespread concern in postwar German fiction, focusing on three major works: Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, Grass's Tin Drum, and Boell's Billiards at Half-Past Nine. An Introduction outlines initial postwar efforts to come to grips with the Third Reich, and an Epilogue examines the continuing confrontation after the three classics in works of the '60s and '70s, discussing especially Handke's A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, Johnson's Anniversaries, and Christa Wolf's Patterns of Childhood. This study draws upon historical and sociological analyses of Nazism to better understand literary treatment of the subject. From such an interdisciplinary perspective the book compares and contrasts six outstanding fictional attempts to come to terms with the Nazi past.
