Auf dem Weg nach Tabou
[In the following review, Knapp offers a mixed assessment of Auf dem Weg nach Tabou.]
Christa Wolf describes her ideal form of writing as a mixture of subjectivity and objectivity, in which her personal encounters and literary efforts are recorded simultaneously. Accordingly, the collection Auf dem Weg nach Tabou mixes diverse levels of experience, often leaving the reader to sort out the relevance of one to the other, and to establish the boundaries between the writer's private and public spheres.
These twenty-eight minor works (nine of which were previously unpublished) can be sorted into four basic categories. The first is made up of journal entries, letters, speeches, and autobiographical reflections, which give an ample glimpse into Wolf's private world. Most notably, she observes and critiques the reunification process as it affected private citizens (and the literary community) in the former German Democratic Republic. Very subjective in quality as well are the texts in the second group, her commissioned pieces on nonliterary subjects such as “Cancer and Society” or contemporary art. When outside her area of expertise, Wolf is earnest but generally uninspired. Her verbose commentaries are accompanied by illustrations (artwork by Nuria Quevedo and others).
In welcome contrast, a third group of essays reveals Wolf's insights about other twentieth-century authors. Here her pen tends to mimic its subject in style and niveau; thus it is not surprising that the volume's strongest pieces are the portraits of Heinrich Böll (a posthumous eulogy on his seventy-fifth birthday), Anna Seghers (a second reprint of Wolf's introduction to a 1994 photobiography), and Max Frisch (on the author's death). Other writers addressed include Friederike Mayröcker, Grace Paley, Otl Aicher, Paul Parin, and the Germanist Hans Mayer.
The volume's most salient reason for being, however, is presumably the cluster of texts documenting Wolf's response to the criticisms recently leveled at her by the popular press. German authors have always been closely scrutinized for their political correctness, and Wolf is not the first suddenly to find herself on a conspicuous side of the perpetually shifting ideological fence. Attacked by Der Spiegel on the basis of her brief involvement with the East German secret police (under an assumed name) in 1959–60, Wolf describes the experience as comparable to witnessing one's own public vivisection. She documents her side of the controversy with letters from and to friends (Günter Grass, Volker and Anne Braun) as well as with lengthy journal entries, describing her shock and depression over an episode “which will forever remain a painful, dark spot” in her career. Wistfully, Wolf admits that in her weak moments she “envies those who were always on the right side at the right time.” Whatever one's view of East-West literary politics, it is certainly not a media prerogative to determine the “right side” and pass judgment on those who ostensibly transgressed—some thirty-five years ago.
All in all, the volume's purpose is to document in a convenient and accessible form this prolific writer's activities in the turbulent five-year period beginning in late 1989: her redefinition and reintegration of self as her country radically reshaped its identity. As such, the book is also her farewell to the poignant world of Kindheitsmuster—the dual Germany that formed Wolf's work and the literary life of her generation.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.