'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

Chapter 2: New Subjectivity and West German Women’s Autobiographical Films
It has been well established in German literary history that the dissolution of the
West German student movement and the political disillusionment of the 1970s were
complemented by the re-orientation of literature toward the private sphere. As Leslie
Adelson explains:
In the aftermath of the student movement, it became popular to speak of a
Tendenzwende [or “change of direction”], a turning away from a highly political
sphere. […] With regard to literature, Tendenzwende has provided a ready label
for the development which seems to favor political concerns and aesthetic
expression over collective interests and political content. (5)
This new trend in literature, which emphasized personal experience, feeling, and
the unique subjectivity of the writer, became known as Neue Subjektivität or “New
Subjectivity.” The more subjective literature of the 1970s is usually seen as a reaction to
the excessive politicization of literature of the previous decade. As McCormick
maintains, the literary current of the 1970s moved away “from politically motivated
documentary „objectivity‟ to autobiographical „subjectivity‟” (Politics 25). Yet the New
Subjectivity of the 1970s retained some aspects of the politically engaged literature of the
1960s. For example, the demand for authenticity and immediacy, which was
fundamental to the literature of the 1960s, was continued in the autobiographies of the
late 1970s. Moreover, the concern with Germany‟s fascist past, which engendered such
documentary dramas as Hochhuth‟s Der Stellvertreter (The Deputy, 1963) and Peter
Weiss‟s Die Ermittlung (The Investigation, 1966), was carried on in the wave of
historical novels and biographies of the late 1970s (Kaes 140). However, the process of
Vergangenheitsbewältigung of the 1970s no longer focused on public figures (such as
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