Negotiating the politics and aesthetics of satire

Twark, Jill E.; Leeder, Karen

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511902543.009

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“…Furthermore, in an essay of 2015, Twark characterizes Lärchenau as an instance of 'grotesque satire'. 35 Hensel, like Grass, does use satire, for instance while Grass's novel Hundejahre / Dog Years (1963) uses dog breeding to satirise Nazi aspirations to breed a Nietzschean Übermensch, Hensel's Lärchenau adopts a similar procedure, using pig farming to poke fun at the socialist ideal of 'der neue Mensch' / 'the new human'. 36 Like the work of Grass, Hensel's work does contain a vein of robust, earthy satire.…”

Section: Narrative Technique and Genrementioning

confidence: 99%

Medical Experiments on Humans in Kerstin Henselʼs Lärchenau (2008)

Schonfield¹

2020

Medical Humanity and Inhumanity in the German-Speaking World

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Medical humanities in a German-speaking context are obliged to reflect upon the active participation of the medical profession in the euthanasia and genocide of the Third Reich. This chapter examines the legacy of Nazi medical crimes in Kerstin Hensel's Lärchenau, a novel set in East Germany before and after German reunification in 1990. 1 Its fictional character Dr Konarske cannot be described as a Nazi, since he is born in 1944 and has no obvious political affiliation. Yet he conducts medical experiments on women that bear a certain resemblance with the medical crimes, sterilisation and fertility programmes of the Nazi regime. Drawing on the work of Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich, this chapter argues that the characters in the novel repeat sadomasochistic behaviour patterns because they have repressed their own childhood traumas and those of their parents: the work of mourning has yet to be done. In so doing, this chapter forms connections with other contributions in this volume. First, Mark Hewitson's contribution investigates post-traumatic stress disorder in the context of the wars of the 1870s. This chapter, by contrast, explores trauma among civilian populations, arguing that Hensel's fiction offers insights into long-term behavioural problems caused by intergenerational domestic violence. Second, the focus in the following on the Mitscherlichs also offers an alternative psychoanalytical approach to that of C.G. Jung. While Martin Liebscher and Sonu Shamdasani examine how Jung fosters personal development by engaging with religion and myth, this chapter is informed instead by the Mitscherlichs' psychoanalytic study of the residual libidinal tion is exemplified also by the character of Dr Szell in the Hollywood film Marathon Man, 1967). Taken together therefore, Davies's chapter and this one reassess the uncomfortable implications of the Nazi legacy for the medical professions in both postwar German states.

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Section: Narrative Technique and Genrementioning

confidence: 99%

Medical Experiments on Humans in Kerstin Henselʼs Lärchenau (2008)

Schonfield¹

2020

Medical Humanity and Inhumanity in the German-Speaking World

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Negotiating the politics and aesthetics of satire

Cited by 1 publication

References 3 publications

Medical Experiments on Humans in Kerstin Henselʼs Lärchenau (2008)

Medical Experiments on Humans in Kerstin Henselʼs Lärchenau (2008)

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