The Child's View of the Third Reich in German Literature: The Eye among the Blind (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)

293 Pages·2001·1.56 MB·English

by  Debbie Pinfold

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Editorial Committee
M. M. BOWIE D. J. CONSTANTINE
E. M. JEFFREYS I. W. F. MACLEAN
R. A. G. PEARSON R. W. TRUMAN J. R. WOODHOUSE
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The Child’s View
of the Third Reich
in German Literature
The Eye among the Blind
DEBBIE PINFOLD
CLARENDON PRESS (cid:2) OXFORD
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3
Great Clarendon Street,Oxford OX2 6DP
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© Debbie Pinfold 2001
The moral rights ofthe author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 2001
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ISBN 0-19-924565-7
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This book is dedicated to the memory of my
mother, to my Dad, and to my nephew Matthew—
who provides me with my favourite examples of
the child’s perspective.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is based on a D.Phil thesis submitted to the Faculty of
Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford in
the summer of 1996. For support during the writing of this thesis I
am grateful to the British Academy; St Hugh’s College, Oxford;
and the F.v.S. Stiftung in Hamburg. I would also like to acknowl-
edge the friendly cooperation of the staff at the Taylorian and
Bodleian Libraries, Oxford; the Staatsbibliothek, Hamburg; and
the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach am Neckar. Thanks
are also due to many colleagues and friends for suggestions and
encouragement: in particular my supervisor Jim Reed, who has
been generous with his time and support well beyond the com-
pletion of the thesis; Michael Butler, David Constantine, Osman
Durrani, Margaret Jacobs, Tom Kuhn, Karen Leeder, and Ray
Ockenden.
I would also like to thank my colleagues at Brasenose for their
support and encouragement, and especially Sos Eltis and Nick
Barber for keeping me away from my work when it mattered. I am
grateful to my students, past and present, both for their interest in
this project and for offering me a highly enjoyable alternative to
working on it. Special thanks go to Chris Cairns, Katherine
Dennis, Julie Smith, and Alexandra Stein for putting up with me
and my work at different times; their friendship, support, and will-
ingness to join me in extended lunch, tea, and supper breaks often
eased my progress. And my greatest debt is to my family, which
has always supported me in everything I have done. Nothing I
could say here would be adequate to express my gratitude to them.
DMP
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PERMISSIONS
I am grateful for permission to reproduce the following material
Günter Grass, Werkausgabe, ed. Volker Neuhaus, 10 vols.,
© Copyright Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1993.
Seamus Heaney, ‘Glanmore Sonnets V’, from Seamus Heaney,
Field Work(London: Faber and Faber, 1979), © Seamus Heaney.
Excerpt from ‘Glanmore Sonnets V’ from Field Work by Sea-
mus Heaney. Copyright © 1981 by Seamus Heaney. Reprinted
by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Gert Hofmann, Unsere Eroberung, © 1984 Carl Hanser Verlag,
München—Wien.
Reiner Kunze, DER BLITZ IN UNSEREM NAMEN in
GESPRÄCH MIT DER AMSEL © 1984 S. Fischer Verlag
GmbH, Frankfurt am Main.
Siegfried Lenz, Deutschstunde © 1968 Hoffmann and Campe
Verlag, Hamburg.
Christa Wolf, Kindheitsmuster, in Werkausgabe, 12 vols.,
ed. Sonja Hilzinger, v., Luchterhand Literaturverlag GmbH,
München 2000 © 2000 Luchterhand Literaturverlag GmbH,
München.
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CONTENTS
Abbreviations x
Works Cited xi
Introduction 1
1. ‘Schuldig, keiner Schuld bewußt?’:
The Fallen Child 33
2. Beyond the Fall 91
3. ‘Sollten alle Kinder Dichter sein?’:
The Child as Artist 159
4. The Inadmissible Witness? 184
5. Conclusion 231
Select Bibliography 251
Index 273