Identitätskonstrukte in Texten junger ostdeutscher Autoren nach 1989/1990

Zu Kerstin Hensel: »Tanz am Kanal« (1994)

Authors

  • Roswitha Skare Universitetet i Tromsø

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/13.1891

Keywords:

Kerstin Hensel, personal identity, collective identity, German unification, representation, construction

Abstract

Since the German reunification biographical, personal identities and various forms of collective identity have become the focus of increased attention. However, the ways in which identity is constructed and which role various forms of representation play in this construction has remained surprisingly underresearched. Using the example of Kerstin Hensel's Tanz am Kanal (1994) and employing postcolonial theory, the present paper will demonstrate how narrative patterns not only reflect social structures, but shape and indeed create these structures. Hensel purposely avoids the conflation of authorial and narrative voice, and thus invents new stories with new memories and identities. She is thus able to show that identity and the quest for identity are not constant in either content or intensity; rather, they remain in perpetual change. 

Author Biography

Roswitha Skare, Universitetet i Tromsø

Roswitha Skare (f. 1967), førstelektor i dokumentasjonsvitenskap ved Universitetet i Tromsø. Har studert germanistikk, anglistikk og allmenn litteraturvitenskap ved universitetene i Jena og Tromsø. Spesialområder: DDR-litteratur, Wendeliteratur, forholdet mellom offentlighetsforhold og dokumentproduksjon/dokumentbruk.

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Published

2004-07-01

How to Cite

Skare, Roswitha. 2004. “Identitätskonstrukte in Texten junger ostdeutscher Autoren nach 1989/1990: Zu Kerstin Hensel: »Tanz am Kanal« (1994)”. Nordlit, no. 16 (July):95–112. https://doi.org/10.7557/13.1891.