Barbara Honigmann

Barbara Honigmann Synopsis

«Offering a range of insightful readings of texts by Honigmann, this volume is engaging and compelling. It will resonate strongly with those readers familiar with Honigmann, deepening their understanding of her work, and will constitute, for others, an urgent invitation to explore her challenging, affecting, and humane œuvre further.» (Professor Emily Jeremiah, Royal Holloway, University of London) «Barbara Honigmann is one of the most incisive and engaging Jewish authors writing in German today. This collection of original essays, many of which illuminate the Jewish dimension of her texts, offers a superb introduction to the writer and raises the analysis of her work to new levels.» (Katja Garloff, Professor of German and Humanities, Reed College) This is the first full-length book in English devoted to the work of one of the most widely read and intriguing contemporary German-language writers. Barbara Honigmann, born in East Berlin in 1949 and a resident of Strasbourg since 1986, treats the major themes of our time from the special perspective of a practising Jewish woman. Her seemingly simple language navigates and reveals hidden complexities, an effect mirrored in her masterly use of form. This book covers Honigmann’s entire œuvre, from her first breakthrough success to her most recent collection of essays and speeches. It includes detailed accounts of form and style, as well as wide-ranging discussions of themes and contexts. Approaching Honigmann’s work from a variety of angles, including aesthetic analysis, feminist and memory studies, the literary exploration of space, and the investigation of autofiction, the essays collected here discuss Honigmann’s unique voice and her treatment of identity and belonging, Jewishness across generations, migration and multiculturalism, postmemory and trauma, language and transcendence. The academic chapters in this volume are complemented by Honigmann’s translation of an installation text by Chantal Akerman, an interview the book’s editors conducted with the author in December 2021, and an extensive bibliography.