Narrative Escalation and the Dynamics of Violence in Post-Reunification German Literature

Abstract

The article aims to show how escalation narratives in contemporary German literature dissect the dynamics of violence in the  twentieth and twenty-first centuries by dealing with outbreaks of violence and making visible hidden forms of violence, both in the modes of latency and drastic depiction. Whereas in Nullerjahre (2022) by Hendrik Bolz and Wir waren wie Brüder (2022) by Daniel Schulz the post-reunification period is reflected through different modes of escalation, depicting publicly visible violence, Anne Rabe’s novel Die Möglichkeit von Glück (2023) shifts this setting to the family level, where different forms of violence appear to be a consequence of the structural violence inherent in the authoritarian system of the GDR. Antje Rávik Strubel’s novel Blaue Frau (2021) addresses similar issues but focuses on the political situation in Europe, describing a young woman’s journey from East to West, filled with exploitation and assault. All texts expose narratives of violent (but sometimes invisible) excesses in the post-reunification period in relating them both to past, but in parts still intact forms of structural and symbolic violence that remain visible as traces – or return in the mode of direct, physical violence.