Amnesia collettiva e Vergangenheitsbewältigung: Psicanalisi e letteratura nella Germania degli anni Sessanta

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the effects on German literature of the renewed interest in Nazi past. In order to do that, it considers Adorno’s and Mitscherlichs’ studies, in which they try – from a psychoanalytic point of view – to understand the mechanisms which made Germans support the leader and then made them remove their guilt. Then, the article focuses on some author of the early Sixties, in order to verify how they try to begin the Germans’ Vergangenheitsbewältigung. As far as possible, the paper examines the reception of these texts, trying to understand how and to what extent they give a contribution to overcome this collective amnesia.

Keywords

• vergangenheitsbewältigung
• shoah
• nazism
• post-war era
• german literature