For roughly two decades now, an unmistakable intercultural diversity has been leaving its mark also on contemporary German-language literature. By Klaus Hübner...
more
Under the pseudo-rabble rousing title "Writers! Break free of your routine!", Eva Menasse, whose work I otherwise enjoy, laments the refusal of writers to take a position behind the SPD. She observes querulously the "bored routine" with which the question "are the intellectuals political enough?" is posed in the German feuilletons. She also complains that almost no authors referred to party affiliation in their refusal to join Günter Grass' request to openly support the SPD in the campaign; their unwillingness was based on a general rejection of the idea of writers advertising for a political party.
It's about time that someone explained, just as querulously, how dreadfully boring it is when young writers or their generation are unable to develop a political vision of their own; when they think "political engagement" means following an old established party that embodies commonplace Realpolitik. And one more thing: it is a writer's right to turn down active participation in a political campaign as a matter of principle.
When one recalls how difficult it was in centuries past to liberate art from religion, when one thinks how, until relatively recently (1945, 1989 respectively), literature was used as propaganda to serve political interests in this country, it seems perplexing that writers are so willing to serve a party today. They relinquish their positions as neutral observers, even though they are quite capable of addressing political themes in their own domain – there are hardly any literary works of real acclaim that fail to paint society in political terms so to speak from the inside. In times where animosities have become diffuse and a "new complexity" has taken over, a complex novel serves better to criticize the current state of affairs than a "contribution to the discussion" or an abbreviated statement in a forum.
To go to bat for a party means saying yes to umpteen positions which one would probably not support when considered individually – that has nothing to do with independent judgment. I know what I'm talking about here. I too was asked by a party to campaign for it, a party that I will probably vote for. But I said no. Not because I'm apolitical but rather because I'm political. For an intellectual, being political means for me being politically independent.
I can understand why older writers and journalists who have been identified with a party for decades continue to take this engagement seriously. For older writers the SPD - Green Party coalition is the project of their generation; they helped build it and give it shape. The older SPD supporters were at least dissidents in their youth. They glided from the oppositional margins of society, right to its pinnacle. Such gentrification processes are ubiquitous and don't discredit the project – certainly not in retrospect.
Willy Brandt really did indicarte a vision when he introduced his Ostpolitik, which was very controversial at the time, and the Greens were, at one time, truly new, different, unconventional – a political avant-garde. But the young writers who will be doing PR work for the SPD don't seem to have any vision of their own. There is no longer even the faintest whiff of that spirit of rebellion or desire for change that once brought people flocking to the SPD or the Green Party. The Kosovo War, the Hartz IV reforms to unemployment and social security benefits, social cutbacks, they're behind it all. Writers for Hartz IV! - that's the revolt of today's youth.
Avant-garde? What is that? Writers don't have to and should not kiss up to politicians! One expects them to be capable of imagining another, better future – a Utopian moment, a visionary book. If literature addresses politics, it should do so not to serve the status quo but rather to compare the negative situation as it is with what might be possible. Good literature is similar to good music in this sense. It transcends reality and opens up, for a moment, the possibility of a better life.
Such a hope was kindled in the initiatives of Brandt and the Greens. But which Utopia lies in the support of Hartz IV remains a mystery to me. The youth have allowed themselves be appropriated by someone who could be their grandfather; that doesn't reflect poorly on Grass but on them. Young writers were never so conservative in the past. Instead of at least getting involved beyond the apparatus of the established parties, they prefer to mount the old hacks of previous generations.
Media-consciousness is showing its face; plus which, nobody really wants to go to the trouble of starting something new. It's all too clear: it's not the visionaries but rather the pragmatics that are standing in file.
*
This article originally appeared in German in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on September 1, 2005.
Tanja Dückers, born 1968, is a writer, journalist and literature studies scholar in Berlin. Her most recent book "Himmelskörper" appeared in 2003.
Translation: nb
RSS
Dragan Klaic arrived in Skopje on the day that Greece vetoed Macedonia's bid to join NATO at the summit in Bucharest. He found a nation reeling from this unexpected slap in the face.
No-one knows what the anti-Koran film 'Fitna' by the Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders contains exactly. But fearing Muslim anger many are ready to make concessions regarding the fundamental freedom of expression. Gelijn Molier looks to nineteenth century philosopher John Stuart Mill for advice.
The deportation of Romanians from Italy in the wake of a murder committed by an ethnic Roma has caused a stir in Romania. Yet whereas Romanians object to this discrimination abroad, they fail to see that at home the Roma are treated with nothing but hatred and disdain, and neither the Church nor the state is doing anything about it. By Mircea Cartarescu
Since the 19th century Ukrainians have been dreaming of a return to the paradise lost of Europe. But Ukraine's rich and painful history remains a blank spot in the European collective consciousness, or a mighty underground river flowing out of Europe's cellar, littered with corpses. By Oksana Zabuzhko
The Amsterdam district of Slotervaart, where Theo van Gogh's murderer lived, continues to be plagued by outbreaks of violence from youths in the immigrant communities. Many of their parents have withdrawn from what they perceive as the hostile outside world, which they invariably blame when their children go astray. By Margalith Kleijwegt
The sexual revolution has run itself aground on the back of standardisation and banality. It's time to fight Hefnerism with radicalisation not restriction, declares Dylan van Rijsbergen 
No sooner were the fires put out reelected the government that bore the than Greek votersbrunt of responsibility for the tragedy. Did those who suffered so much learn no lesson from their distress? Crime writer Petros Markaris looks at why the Greeks have failed to find their way out of the political crisis rocking their country. 
The third anti-porn campaign of the women's feminist magazine Emma is absolutely necessary and, at the same time, hopelessly old-fashioned. You can't use the tools of the 70s to fight the pornographication of today's market - at least not if you want to win. By Iris Radisch 
Russian journalist and Putin critic Grigori Pasko talks with Tobias Goltz about the North Stream Pipeline, Russia's state-controlled media and how his like-minded colleagues are dropping off like flies. 
The elites of East Germany lack orientation, as only the West has left its imprint on the power structure. Roland Mischke talks with political scientist Gunnar Hinck about imbalances and incompetences among East German leaders.