Fakt und Fiktion : die Autobiographie im Spannungsfeld zwischen Theorie und Rezeption

Abstract

Many literary dictionaries still define an autobiography as a deliberate, structured retrospective of the writer’s own life, characterized by a perspective that suggests a certain unity or harmony. Many of these characteristics, however, are now taken for granted less and less. Today, the autobiographer rarely delivers a text that is organized coherently and presents life as a whole. This thesis argues that expectations of, and ideas on, the genre have a substantial effect on the reception of autobiography in the German-speaking area. Earlier concepts of the genre appear to determine readers’ expectations to a large extent. This often results in strange forms of reception, with readers rejecting current variants. The selected works are the autobiography of the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, Kindheitsmuster by Christa Wolf, Generation Golf by Florian Illies, Zonenkinder by Jana Hensel and Meine freie deutsche Jugend by Claudia Rusch. The discussion about the past plays a major role in the reception of these works. For many readers, it is not style or point of view that are decisive, but the manner in which the Austrian or German past is described.