Between Mine and Yours and Everybody’s. Identity Proposals in a Poem by
Günther Kunert Cover Image

“ZWISCHEN MEIN UND DEIN UND ALLGEMEIN”. IDENTITÄTSANGEBOTE IN EINEM GEDICHT VON GÜNTHER KUNERT
Between Mine and Yours and Everybody’s. Identity Proposals in a Poem by Günther Kunert

Author(s): Lora Constantinescu
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Applied Linguistics
Published by: EDITURA ASE
Keywords: “Ostalgie“; “the Wall in the minds“; individuality vs. collectivity; awareness of the past

Summary/Abstract: The former dissident GDR-poet Günther Kunert has experienced both the GDR and theunited Germany after 1990, in both cases being coined as one of those “misfits” of oldSocialist Germany as well of post-1989 Germany. Kunert is known for his (sometimesfrightening) “warning poetry”, which has often tackled difficult issues such as the presentvs. the past, ecology, mass media, individuality, loneliness and otherness. This articleaims at presenting Kunert’s highly critical interpretation of the motif of “Ostalgie” in thepoem titled “An einen ostalgischen Dichter”/“To an ostalgic poet” from 1999. “Ostalgie”represents a postunification nostalgia among (disappointed) East Germans mourning thedisappearance of Socialism. Kunert’s purpose is to point at the “Wall in the people’sminds” and to dismantle the myth of the old egalitarian (but totalitarian) system. Hispoetic tool resides in the double-edged usage of certain terms referring to the concepts ofHAVE/ PROPERTY/ INDIVIDUALITY/ COLLECTIVITY. In this way, he creates anironic “dialectics of utopia and paradox”, taking full advantage of various allusive effects

  • Issue Year: 2/2001
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 62-68
  • Page Count: 4
  • Language: German