TRANSITIVITY OF THE CONTEMPORARY GERMAN LITERATURE (ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY)

Abstract

This article is devoted to the problem of research methodology of the contemporary German literature of the 1990–2010s. Taking into account the specifics of this literary period, the author proposes to consider this literature in the context of transitional epoch. The first part of the article gives an overview of the latest theoretical and critical works in the field of methodology of modern literature. It is emphasized that common to most researchers is a statement of the exhaustion of old methods and a search for new approaches to literary works written after the Turn (1989/1990).

Purpose of the paper is to justify the relevance and practicability of considering contemporary German literature of the turn of the 20th – 21st centuries as phenomena of unstable (transitional, borderline) nature; to identify the main features of transitivity in the German-language literature of the 1990-2010s.

Methods: system analysis, critical analysis of discourse, analytical and interpretative method.

Results. The second part of the article is devoted to German literature in the context of the theory of transition. Initially, the observations of scientists involved in the study of transitional epochs are summarized. The universal features of the transitional era, characteristic for different periods of reorientation, are highlighted. Then, the specific features of modern German literature as a transitional era are examined. It is shown that the impetus for changes in the cultural paradigm of Germany was the radical change in the state system of Germany in 1989 and 1990. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany were embodied in the minds of the Germans as “Wende” and became a symbol of deep socio-political and cultural turn. Transitional processes are reflected in the change of writers’ generations, genre polyphony and aesthetic pluralism, intermedial synthesis, “normalization” of literature and the shift from serious to entertaining literature, oriented toward an international reader. Among the characters of the “transitional period”, heroes with a hybrid gender, national-cultural, professional identity began to prevail. An important feature of contemporary literature is its transcultural transition, which is realized in the multicultural vector of development of German literature. It is concluded that the study of modern literature in the context of transition can be effective, since it allows you to take into account all aspects of the polyphonic literary process.