Information about the author:
Aleksandra V. Eliseeva
Aleksandra V. Eliseeva, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Chair for Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Baltic State Technical University “Voenmeh” D.F. Ustinov, 1st Krasnoarmeyskaya 1, 190005 St. Petersburg, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6911-1927
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Abstract:
The article deals with the concept of “New Subjectivity”, which is used to describe German-language literature of the 1970s. The first part covers the history of the concept, its meaning in critical and academic literature, as well as the controversy that has arisen around it. The second part of the article contains argumentation aimed at legitimizing the concept of “New Subjectivity” as a term. German-language literature of the 1970s clearly reveals an increased interest in the individual, in subjectivity, which was not characteristic of the previous decade. The analysis of two novels by Nicolas Born The Dark Side of History and The Deception, the novel by Rolf Dieter Brinkmann No One Knows More, the story of Peter Schneider Lenz, the essay by Michael Rutschky “Experience Hunger”, the play by Botho Strauß Big and Little, and the poem by Karin Kiwus “Fragile” shows that the literary subject of the 1970s has specific features due to being in a permanent state of identity crisis. The characters in the considered works experience dissatisfaction with all social roles and scenarios, do not find a place in professional life, in political and / or civic activity, in marriage, in parenthood, in love and friendship. The mental ill-being of the characters is closely related to the motifs of disease and of journey. The identity crisis also manifests itself in the absence of names of the characters or their incompleteness.
Keywords: “New Subjectivity”, N. Born, R.L. Brinkmann, K. Kiwus, P. Schneider, B. Strauß, M. Rutschky.
