Dagmar Leupolds Vaterroman „Nach den Kriegen“ als Zwischenreich von Identitätsfindung und Gedächtnis
Dagmar Leupold’s Novel “Nach den Kriegen” as the Sphere between Newly Found Identity and Memory

Summary/Abstract: Dagmar Leupold’s novel ‘‘Nach den Kriegen’’ constitutes a particular sphere of identity and memory, in which fact and fiction are combined and interwoven with literary and historical searches. For the narrator, a critical approach to family legends is seen as a starting point that is much needed to face the past and discover ones own identity. In the novel the analysis of the past and its subjective organisation is carried out through memories based on the interwoven ‘‘horizons of memory’’ (Gedächtnishorizonte). The meta-narrator includes three types of memory: individual memory (individuelles Gedächtnis), collective memory of generations (kommunikatives Generationengedächtnis) and cultural memory (kulturelles Gedächtnis). The main theme of the novel concentrates on the assiduous search for the narrator’s father and the irresistible need to discover and understand the motives of his thoughts and actions seen in the light of the mentality and political fate of the war generation in Nazi Germany. ‘‘Nach den Kriegen’’ is also regarded as a testimony of the painful process of loss which, whilst being filled with memories and observations, ends in the discovery of one’s own identity.

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