ABSTRACT
In the outro of this book, Lensen brings the main results from the respective readings together and specifies the various features of literary meta-memory. He draws attention to the importance of mnemonic appropriation as a guiding principle in contemporary literary engagement with the memory of World War II. Rather than struggling with a dominant but evasive traumatic past that is typical of accounts of post-memory and the so-called Väterliteratur, as Lensen argues, fictions of meta-memory demonstrate – on the diegetic and on the extradiegetic level – the urge and ability to self-consciously take charge of mnemonic construction, thereby reflecting upon the contemporary conditions of remembering, alerting readers’ to World War II’s continued impact and relevance, challenging established mnemonic rules, practices, and routines, while also reiterating its importance to understand political and social developments today. In that constructive process, a posttraumatic attitude of playfulness replaces the need for coping as the driving factor of mnemonic engagement and innovation.
