Plenzdorfs Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.: Excavating the Intertexts

Abstract

The unification of the two Germanies in 1990 created a new interest in East Germany and an availability of information about the former communist country. The altered political context has fostered a re-evaluation of "things eastern," since much of what had previously been rejected or undervalued as the product of a communist-socialist regime has now proven to have its own merit. In this spirit, I have pursued a thesis which begins to re-examine East German literature - specifically through a study of Ulrich Plenzdorfs Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. Plenzdorfs novel provides an ideal basis for a discussion of the major issues surrounding writing, author-state relations, and the relationship between politics and culture in East Germany. Although Ulrich Plenzdorfis a well known East German author, his fame is based more on the controversy surrounding the use and imitation of Goethe in Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. than on his own literary accomplishments. However, the strengths of the novel can only be explored and appreciated through a broader perspective. Using theories of intertextuality, I have investigated strong connections between Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. and Robinson Crusoe and Catcher in the Rye and identified more significant relationships than those of mimicry between Plenzdorfs novel and Goethe's Werther. Of particular interest is the way in which this pairing reveals and contrasts with the dominant East German view ofthe German cultural heritage. The comparison between Die neue Leiden and Salinger's Catcher in the Rye reveals the implications ofthis relationship between East German and American literature. The overt connection which Plenzdorf creates between his book and this American classic is both an expression and contradiction ofthe dominant East German view of the United States. The work of intertextual theorists provides a framework for the examination of the literary interrelationships, as well as for the identication and analysis of linguistic, cultural, and political intertexts. But while Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. is a compilation ofrecycled material, it is also a unique piece of literature. Not only does Plenzdorf borrow from a number ofother sources, but he makes the inevitability and necessity of this adoption a theme of his work. Just as the central figure Wibeau searches for his own identity, moving through imitations ofRobinson Crusoe, Holden Caulfield, and Werther, so too Plenzdorf is searching for his own voice in the chorus ofthe masters ofthe past such as Defoe, Salinger, and Goethe. In this quest for self-development and self-realization, Plenzdorf and Wibeau confront traditions, assumptions, and present practices, stimulating questions, discussion, and creating the original work Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.