{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44442"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44442","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Post-GDR memory--cultural discourses of loss and assertion in reunified Germany","abstract":"When considering the blockage of a nuanced GDR memory within post-unification discourses, the historical moment of 1989 can be understood as a moment of loss for East Germans. While post-unification scholarship has addressed questions of GDR identity and generational memory in other post-1989 contexts, there is an absence of scholarly work that discusses loss across different Eastern German generations that share the same historical moment of collapse and loss - 1989. In this dissertation, I divide the various Eastern German generational engagements with loss and assertion after 1989 into four chapters. Each generation forms a different discursive constellation: melancholic mourning: (Christa Wolf - chapter one), ambivalence (Lutz Rathenow and Thomas Brussig - chapter two), reappropriation (Jana Hensel and Jakob Hein - chapter three), and nostalgia/anti-nostalgia (Andrea Hanna Hünniger and the GDR museum - chapter four). Age and social position at the time of rupture fostered different perspectives regarding the experience of loss. My examination uses a case study approach to investigate trends. Taking each author individually and analyzing the process of dealing with loss in their works to other generational approaches, new insights into post-GDR memory studies are provided. Although this study analyzes only Eastern German literary productions and museal constructions, it provides insights into the development of culture in unified, post-1989 Germany and into questions of where culturally mutable notions of East German identity fit into the processes by which a collective sense of German identity is shaped in the post-unification period.","abstract_html":"When considering the blockage of a nuanced GDR memory within post-unification discourses, the historical moment of 1989 can be understood as a moment of loss for East Germans. While post-unification scholarship has addressed questions of GDR identity and generational memory in other post-1989 contexts, there is an absence of scholarly work that discusses loss across different Eastern German generations that share the same historical moment of collapse and loss - 1989. In this dissertation, I divide the various Eastern German generational engagements with loss and assertion after 1989 into four chapters. Each generation forms a different discursive constellation: melancholic mourning: (Christa Wolf - chapter one), ambivalence (Lutz Rathenow and Thomas Brussig - chapter two), reappropriation (Jana Hensel and Jakob Hein - chapter three), and nostalgia/anti-nostalgia (Andrea Hanna Hünniger and the GDR museum - chapter four). Age and social position at the time of rupture fostered different perspectives regarding the experience of loss. My examination uses a case study approach to investigate trends. Taking each author individually and analyzing the process of dealing with loss in their works to other generational approaches, new insights into post-GDR memory studies are provided. Although this study analyzes only Eastern German literary productions and museal constructions, it provides insights into the development of culture in unified, post-1989 Germany and into questions of where culturally mutable notions of East German identity fit into the processes by which a collective sense of German identity is shaped in the post-unification period.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Markin, Molly"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"German","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Pinkert, Anke","Wade, Mara R.","Johnson, Laurie R.","Yildiz, Yasemin"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-05-24T22:16:15Z","date_published":"2013-05-24T22:16:15Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:34Z","subjects":["memory","loss","Reunified Germany"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2013 Molly R. Markin"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44442","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Pinkert, Anke","Wade, Mara R.","Johnson, Laurie R.","Yildiz, Yasemin"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Markin, Molly"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2013-05-24T22:16:15Z","2015-05-24T10:00:53Z","2013-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["German"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["memory","loss","Reunified Germany"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2013 Molly R. Markin"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44442"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["When considering the blockage of a nuanced GDR memory within post-unification discourses, the historical moment of 1989 can be understood as a moment of loss for East Germans. While post-unification scholarship has addressed questions of GDR identity and generational memory in other post-1989 contexts, there is an absence of scholarly work that discusses loss across different Eastern German generations that share the same historical moment of collapse and loss - 1989. In this dissertation, I divide the various Eastern German generational engagements with loss and assertion after 1989 into four chapters. Each generation forms a different discursive constellation: melancholic mourning: (Christa Wolf - chapter one), ambivalence (Lutz Rathenow and Thomas Brussig - chapter two), reappropriation (Jana Hensel and Jakob Hein - chapter three), and nostalgia/anti-nostalgia (Andrea Hanna Hünniger and the GDR museum - chapter four). Age and social position at the time of rupture fostered different perspectives regarding the experience of loss. My examination uses a case study approach to investigate trends. Taking each author individually and analyzing the process of dealing with loss in their works to other generational approaches, new insights into post-GDR memory studies are provided. Although this study analyzes only Eastern German literary productions and museal constructions, it provides insights into the development of culture in unified, post-1989 Germany and into questions of where culturally mutable notions of East German identity fit into the processes by which a collective sense of German identity is shaped in the post-unification period.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2013-04-12T17:55:53Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 1 Markin_Molly.pdf: 1888110 bytes, checksum: 9cd96207b633d776f8221dd26f35132c (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-24T22:16:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Molly_Markin.pdf: 1888110 bytes, checksum: 9cd96207b633d776f8221dd26f35132c (MD5) license.txt: 4062 bytes, checksum: 055a944da09b76d67ad5b949942d1574 (MD5)","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Seth Robbins (srobbins@illinois.edu) on 2013-05-24T22:18:57Z Item is restricted until 2015-05-24T22:18:31Z","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:36:10-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: 2015-05-24 17:18:31 UTC Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 44415 on 2015-05-24T10:00:53Z."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Post-GDR memory--cultural discourses of loss and assertion in reunified Germany"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Pinkert, Anke","Wade, Mara R.","Johnson, Laurie R.","Yildiz, Yasemin"],"dc:creator":["Markin, Molly"],"dc:date":["2013-05-24T22:16:15Z","2015-05-24T10:00:53Z","2013-05"],"dc:description":["When considering the blockage of a nuanced GDR memory within post-unification discourses, the historical moment of 1989 can be understood as a moment of loss for East Germans. While post-unification scholarship has addressed questions of GDR identity and generational memory in other post-1989 contexts, there is an absence of scholarly work that discusses loss across different Eastern German generations that share the same historical moment of collapse and loss - 1989. In this dissertation, I divide the various Eastern German generational engagements with loss and assertion after 1989 into four chapters. Each generation forms a different discursive constellation: melancholic mourning: (Christa Wolf - chapter one), ambivalence (Lutz Rathenow and Thomas Brussig - chapter two), reappropriation (Jana Hensel and Jakob Hein - chapter three), and nostalgia/anti-nostalgia (Andrea Hanna Hünniger and the GDR museum - chapter four). Age and social position at the time of rupture fostered different perspectives regarding the experience of loss. My examination uses a case study approach to investigate trends. Taking each author individually and analyzing the process of dealing with loss in their works to other generational approaches, new insights into post-GDR memory studies are provided. Although this study analyzes only Eastern German literary productions and museal constructions, it provides insights into the development of culture in unified, post-1989 Germany and into questions of where culturally mutable notions of East German identity fit into the processes by which a collective sense of German identity is shaped in the post-unification period.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2013-04-12T17:55:53Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 1 Markin_Molly.pdf: 1888110 bytes, checksum: 9cd96207b633d776f8221dd26f35132c (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-24T22:16:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Molly_Markin.pdf: 1888110 bytes, checksum: 9cd96207b633d776f8221dd26f35132c (MD5) license.txt: 4062 bytes, checksum: 055a944da09b76d67ad5b949942d1574 (MD5)","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Seth Robbins (srobbins@illinois.edu) on 2013-05-24T22:18:57Z Item is restricted until 2015-05-24T22:18:31Z","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:36:10-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: 2015-05-24 17:18:31 UTC Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 44415 on 2015-05-24T10:00:53Z."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44442"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2013 Molly R. Markin"],"dc:subject":["memory","loss","Reunified Germany"],"dc:title":["Post-GDR memory--cultural discourses of loss and assertion in reunified Germany"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["German"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:34Z"}