Die Ankunftsliteratur

This book deals with the ‘Ankunftsliteratur’, a rather unusual genre for today’s reader that has been initiated in the early sixties by authors such as Christa Wolf or Karl-Heinz Jakobs. Their texts praise the communist party, the Berlin Wall and the happiness of industrial labour. While this irritates contemporary readers, academics are not sure what the category ‘Ankunftsliteratur’ exactly means. This book discusses the origin and functionality of the genre, relates which texts are included and, by breaking down and interpreting their characters, places and plots, identifies a pattern. With a closer look on two novels, the political limits of the genre as well as the individual realization of its pattern are illustrated. In all, this book provides an important foundation for the understanding and interpretation of ‘Ankunftsliteratur’.