Memory and Loss in Contemporary German Women’s Writing

This thesis explores how memory and the past function in contemporary German women’s writing. The texts that are analysed in this dissertation are Jenny Erpenbeck’s Heimsuchung and Dinge, die verschwinden; Judith Schalansky’s Blau steht dir nicht and Verzeichnis einiger Verluste; Julia Schoch’s Mit der Geschwindigkeit des Sommers and Das Vorkommnis; and Felicitas Hoppe’s Hoppe. In this constellation of texts, memory and gender are inherently linked, and although approaches to memory across the texts vary, the importance of literature in understanding the past emerges.