Uwe Johnson und Christa Wolf Vergangenheits- und Gegenwartsaufarbeitung in ihren literarischen Werken (German text)

This investigation analyzes the representation of history in select prose by Uwe Johnson and Christa Wolf. The study seeks to show the explicit and implicit connections and relations drawn by the authors in their literary texts between the depiction of the Third Reich and the socialist society of the GDR. This entails the question whether one can compare Socialism and National Socialism as totalitarian states. Furthermore, the question of individual integrity is a central issue of the investigation.; This study commences with a discussion on Johnson's and Wolf's politics and the cultural and social contexts which set the frame for their literary work. This includes discussions of censorship and self-censorship within the texts and in the social-cultural context, as well as of the totalitarian model of power and Foucault's aspect of power and resistance. In Johnson's Jahrestage I assess where and how the author places the transitions and relations between the Third Reich and the GDR. This is followed by an analysis of Wolf's Kindheitsmuster and Kassandra . In Kindheitsmuster I analyze the depiction of the Third Reich and the few and brief episodes regarding the GDR. In Kassandra, although the setting is ancient Greece, I explore how Wolf portrays the GDR. Based on the representation of the parents and the school as socializing factors in the lives of the protagonists as they reflect on their past, I analyze how Johnson and Wolf deal with the central ethical issue of personal integrity and how the authors relate the two political systems to each other.; My conclusion is that Johnson and Wolf demonstrate analogies between the Third Reich and the GDR. The surveillance of the people and the regulation of the language to discipline the people are characteristics of both Fascism and Socialism. The authors refer to the totalitarian demands of both systems which suppress reality in favor of an ideology.