Arguably the most important--and influential--German woman writer of the
last century, Christa Wolf was long heralded as "die gesamtdeutsche
Autorin," an author for all of Germany; but, after 1989 in unified
Germany, Wolf found herself suddenly embroiled in controversies that
challenged her integrity and consigned her to an ideologically suspect
identity as "DDR Schriftstellerin" (GDR writer) or "Staatsdichterin"
(state poet). What Remains: Responses to the Legacy of Christa Wolf
asks the question of what truly remains of her legacy in the annals of
contemporary German culture and history. Unlike most of what appeared in
the wake of Wolf's death, however, the contributions to this
international volume seek neither to monumentalize her nor to dismantle
her stature, but to employ a range of methodologies--comparative,
intertextual, psychoanalytic, historical, transcultural--to offer
sensitive assessments of Wolf's major literary texts, as well as of her
lesser known work in genres such as film and essay.