| This dissertation focuses on the autobiographies of four German-speaking authors, Stefan Heym, Susanne Leonhard, Hilde Spiel, and Susanne Leonhard, who had to leave their home countries after Hitler's rise to power and who documented their often very fragmented lives in autobiographies. These authors are very different from each other as far as their gender, age, social status, and political affiliations are concerned. In their texts they provide the reader with their personal exile experience which creates a multi-facetted picture of the traumatic experience of exile and the historic circumstances of the time. What these authors have in common is the fact, that even though all of them at some point returned to their former home, none of them ever felt at home there anymore, which means their exile lasted a lifetime. The dissertation analyses how these authors view themselves, how they attempt to portray their lives in exile and how they wish to guide and influence the reader. While they all have different images of themselves that they want to convey to the audience, they all attempt in their autobiographies to (re)create a sense of unity in their lives that has been lost. |
