"In Germany I became a freethinker ..."

This collection of essays and lectures (four in English, and eight in German) reflects the author's interest in German and Austrian literary and political developments since the end of the Second World War. It also demonstrates how an 'outsider' can gain intimate knowledge of a 'foreign' culture. After 1945, many--but not all--exiled writers returned. Their colleagues who had chosen not to leave had to adjust to both denazification and the Cold War, and a new generation sought to reshape the cultural identity of countries that were initially unwilling to come to terms with the immediate past. The figures whose works and public statements are analyzed here include Wolf Biermann, F.C. Delius, Tankred Dorst, Gundi Ellert, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Norbert Gstrein, Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek, Felix Mitterer, Peter Schneider, Botho Strauß, Christa Wolf, and Friedrich Wolf.