“Vergangenheitsbewἄltigung” is a coinage in German that is used to mean something like “coming to terms with the past.” That is the major theme of post-World War II German literature, but, considering the effort that was expended, leading literary figures have done a remarkably poor job of it. It was an obsession of Christa Wolf, an author in former East Germany who critics long considered a major candidate for the Nobel Prize, as well as of the late Gὒnter Grass, who won the Nobel Prize in 1999. Wolf managed to block from her mind the fact that she had worked …read more
Source: The Huffington Post
