Bodily secret(ion)s: Ulrike Draesner's gedächtnisschleifen (1995)

Abstract

AbstractFor Ulrike Draesner, there are clear parallels between West Germany in the 1950s and Germany during the years following reunification. Taking as its starting point Draesner's remark that memory must be viewed as a construct, this article explores embodied intergenerational memory in her debut poetry volume gedächtnisschleifen (1995). gedächtnisschleifen has been commonly read alongside the poetry of Durs Grünbein, Thomas Kling, and other post‐Wende writers who represent divided Berlin as an opened, emaciated body. This article, however, takes a different angle, arguing that gedächtnisschleifen renders the body as a memory apparatus: Memory takes on the quality of a physical force or secretion, passed among bodies and across generations. Moreover, this article contends that Draesner reflects on and negotiates the role of third‐generation poetry vis‐à‐vis Germany's Nazi past.