Public and private worlds : 'Islands' and insularity in post-GDR fiction

Shersby, Janice (2024) Public and private worlds : 'Islands' and insularity in post-GDR fiction. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

This thesis considers ‘island fiction’ published in the twenty-first century by seven writers from the former East Germany (GDR). It examines how these texts function both as contributions to the developing discourse on remembering the GDR and as commentaries on contemporary German society through the ways in which they deal with issues concerning the relationship between individuals and society. The last two decades have seen a growth in critical interest in island spaces and insularity in German-language literature, responding to the widespread harnessing of the island trope in contemporary texts. This thesis provides a comparative study of the ways in which ‘islands’ and insularity function specifically in fiction by a range of former East German authors. Retreats to insular spaces in these novels suggest the desire for autonomy and the creation of private ‘counterworlds’ in the face of public worlds which are experienced as alienating, destructive or compelling conformity, whether during the GDR or in the post-unification context. I draw on theories of human geography, phenomenology and the multi-disciplinary field of island studies when looking at their spatio-temporal elements, in addition to literary and cultural theory relating to island discourses. I also deploy a range of psychological models in considering the texts’ exploration of the nature of the self and its interaction with social environment. The negotiation of a stable sense of identity and meaningful forms of self-determination is shown as an enduring challenge for individuals before and after 1989. Deploying experience of very different socio-political environments in the GDR and its aftermath, these authors offer a distinctive perspective on recent history in Germany, but go beyond this in extrapolating wider conclusions about the nature of society and patterns in history and human behaviour which widen their texts’ relevance and potential readership.

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