Eternal Adolescence. On the Search for Home and Meaning in the German Contemporary Novel

Authors:

Pages: 187-198
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/PSSN1697

Abstract:

The paper argues that the notorious idealism of German literature since the 18th century was interrupted not only by the working-class literature of the 19th century and the New Objectivity literature of the 20s. Two contemporary novels stand once again for the current interest for topics associated with the domestic and socioeconomic reality of urban living. Anke Stelling’s award winning Schäfchen im Trockenen and Jan Brandt’s Ein Haus auf dem Land/Eine Wohnung in der Stadt tell the stories of two middle aged writers struggling with social inequality, gentrification of the city and the conditions of their own artistic creativity. Kicked out of their flats, they reflect on their family and upbringing and on moving to the German capital. In this situation of crisis, they see themselves and are seen by others as adolescent characters. But their adolescence isn’t a transitional stage of body and mind, it’s a long-term socioeconomic condition of insecurity and precarity, which deeply affects their language and way of living.

Keywords:

adolescence; German contemporary novel; social inequality; Berlin; sociology of literature

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