On the Value Approach to the Description of the Newest German-language Literature

Abstract

The article expresses a hypothesis about the need to search for criteria for describing the latest literary process. An assessment of the literary history of Germany after 1945 shows that the situation of the turning point (1990s), which divided the post-war and after the post-war literature, at the beginning of the 21st century, began to transform into something else, to the description of which the approaches have to be determined. In the context of human civilization entering into the era of a new understanding of oneself in general and of the individual in particular, retrospective use of the terms «literary direction», «style» or «literary period» does not work. As a possible way, the author of the article proposes a value approach, as one of the criteria – an appeal to the Christian component of modern texts. Thus, fiction is understood as a sensitive seismograph reflecting the spiritual quest and de- mands of the society in the era of civilizational transformations. Highlighting key value characteristics in literary texts allows us to show the search for a way out of postmodern indifference to the world, the change in the playful ambivalence of creativity by the expression of the author’s unambigu- ous moral position. Comparison of individual works of E. Heidenreich, D. Dörrie, B. Schlink, W. Hilbig, T. Dückers, J. Winkler, S. Lewicharoff, using the theses of K. Jaspers and J. Habermas helps us to represent the actual significance of the stated criterion for describing a modern literary history.