Christa Wolf – Bibliography of Literary Criticism
Works selected and annotated by Claudia Maria Bihlmaier, Markus Birkner, Katja Buchholz, Johanna Gröschel, Leonie Hintz, Monika Huber, Stefanie Kappes, Mareike Koch, Heike Monika Lambrecht, Miriam Lamparter, Judith Probstmeyer, Christina Reul, Rebekka Schmich, Helen Schneider (Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart/Germany, Fall/Winter term 2008/2009).
Christa Wolf, born 1929, is considered one of East Germany’s most prominent and highly acclaimed writers, yet controversially debated in many respects. Her extensive work reflects the lives of individuals and their various forms of (non)cooperation with the East German dictatorship, the German Democratic Republic, and the transition to a reunified Germany after its revolutionary overthrow and subsequent collapse.
Atkins, Robert; Martin Kane: Retrospect and Review: aspects of the literature of the GDR, 1976-1990. Amsterdam ; Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1997
In Retrospect and Review an international team of scholars explores East German literature and the conditions of its production in the last phase of the German Democratic Republic’s existence. The fraught relationship between the state and its intellectuals inevitably forms a consistent theme in the studies of writers as diverse as Anna Seghers and Kito Lorenc, Christa Wolf and Jurek Becker, or Irmtraud Morgner and Heiner Müller. However, the process of ‘retrospect and review’ also reveals the innovative and independent-minded character of the culture of the GDR’s later years. And in the literature of the 1970s and 1980s, experimental narrative strategies take on a political role as a counter-discourse to a stubbornly inflexible political order.
Love, Myra Norma: Christa Wolf: literature and the conscience of history. New York: P. Lang, 1991.
This study focuses on the writings of Christa Wolf, one of East Germany’s most prominent and controversial authors. Offering original and provocative readings of Wolf’s most significant literary and essayistic texts, it explores the changes of her moral vision.
Buehler, George: The Death of Socialist Realism in the Novels of Christa Wolf. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1984
This book shows the five characteristics of socialist realism in GDR literature. It analyzes the model of socialist realism in Christa Wolf’s works.
Levine, Michael G.: “Writing Anxiety: Christa Wolf’s Kindheitsmuster.” Diacritics. 27. 2 (1997): 106-123.
Essay about Christa Wolf’s novel Kindheitsmuster, published in English as Patterns of Childhood. It deals critically with the major themes of the text and its psychological aspects. It also shows the relationship of writing anxiety and the role of the personal pronoun by the narrator in Christa Wolf’s work.
Kuhn, Anna Katharina: Christa Wolf’s Utopian Vision: From Marxism to Feminism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 (Cambridge studies in German).
A chronological study of Christa Wolf’s works. It delves into the development of the writer’s major themes and documents the rise of her feminist consciousness. It focuses on political and feminist issues, but also reflects her self-understanding.
Resch, Margit: Understanding Christa Wolf: Returning Home to a Foreign Land. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1997.
In this chronological study of Christa Wolf’s works, Resch surveys the literary career of one of Germany’s most acclaimed writers. The book offers insightful answers to some important questions regarding Christa Wolf and her works: Why did Wolf remain in the East although she enjoyed unrestricted travel privileges? How was she able to survive artistically in an authoritarian regime? And which qualities in her writing earned her the respect of major critics on both sides of the Wall?