Frame and Preparation
Conceptual Frames and Background
- East Germany
- Socialism
- Aufbauliteratur
- History and progress
- Berlin Wall
- Feminism
Preparation
- The events of the novel are intertwined with the real history of the DDR, so an overview of the first two decades of the country will be helpful for students to better understand and contextualize the text.
- “Aufbauliteratur” refers to fictional texts that thematize the postwar reconstruction of East Germany and the spirit of “building socialism” that imbued much of the state ideology. The novel can be read as an ambivalent comment on that genre and paradigm, and thus an interesting point of comparison for discussion can be made if this context is given.
Text and Discussion
- What are the roles, expectations, and rights of women in East Germany and under socialism?
- What is Rita’s attitude towards socialism and the ideology of the state?
- The DDR is often understood in conventional wisdom as a totalitarian state that deprived its citizens of true prosperity and freedom, especially in comparison to an ostensibly free, liberal, and rich West Germany. How does Rita navigate the ‘totalitarian’ nature of her country? Can we describe her as free?
- Can one be an ethical subject in a totalitarian state, if one does not have the freedom to make one’s own decisions and exercise free will without major limitations?
- What image of East German and Berlin society do we receive in the novel? What are its values, its commitments, its paradigms?
- How do politics and the romance between Rita and Manfred intersect? How are interpersonal relations inflected by external forces?
- Connect the construction of the Berlin Wall in the novel with the development of their relationship. What does the Wall come to symbolize?