European Literatures of Military Occupation

Matthias Buschmeier is an associate professor (Akademischer Direktor) for German Literature in the European Context at Bielefeld University. Jeanne E. Glesener is an associate professor in Luxembourgish Literature at Université du Luxembourg.

• Acknowledgments European Literatures of Military Occupation: An Introduction to the Topic and Terminology of the Genre Matthias BuschmeierPART 1 LITERATURE AND THE WORLD: OCCUPATION AS A EUROPEAN EXPERIENCEIntroduction to Part 1 Jeanne E. GlesenerChapter 1. SCARS. Writing on Occupation: The Reality Effect of Narrative and Psychogeographical Space, or The Case of Wil Jeroen OlyslaegersChapter 2. Affective Realism: The Literature of Occupation through Regions and Ages − Vercors’ Le Silence de la mer (1942), Willem Frederik Hermans’ De donkere kamer van Damokles (1958), and Cătălin Mihuleac’s America de peste pogrom (2014) Matthias BuschmeierPART 2 CULTURAL SPACES OF OCCUPATIONIntroduction to Part 2 Jeanne E. GlesenerChapter 3. Military Occupation as Tourism? Griechenland. Ein Buch aus dem Kriege (1942) and Ölberge, Weinberge (1953) by Erhart Kästner Christopher MeidChapter 4. Banished from an Occupied Exile: Rudolf Borchardt’s Anabasis Fragment (1944) Jan AndresChapter 5. German Writers as Occupiers and Occupied: Franco-German Representations in the Works of Felix Hartlaub (1940–1941) and Tami Oelfken (1945–1955) Stefanie SiessChapter 6. Literary Representations of Occupied Cities: Tbilisi, Paris, and Luxembourg Atinati MamatsashviliChapter 7. Semantics of Occupation(s) in Pierre Grégoire’s Europäische Suite Trilogy: Catholicism, Anticommunism, and the Idea of Luxembourgish Exceptionalism Daniela LiebPART 3 WRITING UNDER/AGAINST OCCUPATION: STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE AND PROPAGANDAIntroduction to Part 3 Jeanne E. GlesenerChapter 8. Setting the Stage for an Immediate Historicization? Early Sense-Making of the Allied Occupation of Italy between Fictionalized Accounts, War Novels, and Propaganda (1943–1947) Stefan LaffinChapter 9. Literature from Below: Literary Competitions in Serbia (1941–1945) and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–1945) Aleksandar MomčilovićChapter 10. Translating Occupied Poland into English, 1939–1955 Joanna RzepaChapter 11. How to Handle the New Occupiers? Margret Boveri’s Amerikafibel für erwachsene Deutsche: Ein Versuch, Unverstandenes zu erklären (1946) Sandra SchellPART 4 REMEMBERING OCCUPATIONIntroduction to Part 4 Jeanne E. GlesenerChapter 12. “It was over. Düsseldorf was dead”—Narratives of a Renewed Occupation Klaus-Michael BogdalChapter 13. Reflections on Twentieth-Century Military Occupations in Latvian and Estonian Novels Benedikts KalnačsChapter 14. Occupied by Comrades? The Concealed Story of the Soviet Military Presence in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania after 1945 in Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage (1970–1983) Meinolf SchumacherList of Contributors

European Literatures of Military Occupation, 1938-55 establishes ‘occupation literature’ as a distinct generic category. Rather than fighters, as does the war novel, occupation literature portrays civilians entangled in complex and often ambivalent relationships with the invader. The volume makes a bold claim that it is indeed the experience of occupation that forms the basis for European identity. It therefore becomes an important intervention at the time when Brexit and the widespread rise of populism have put in jeopardy the shared sense of Europeanness, while the war in Ukraine has reminded Europeans of the importance of unity and solidarity in the face of external threats. - Prof. Helena Duffy - University of Wroclaw