Guilt and Trauma in Cultural Memory and German Literature after 1945

Ngo Thi Thu Thuy *

* Correspondence: Ngo Thi Thu Thuy (email: marjorie.thuy85@gmail.com)

Article Sidebar

PDF
Received: 25 Jun 2025
Revised: 11 Sep 2025
Accepted: 26 Sep 2025
Published: 28 Apr 2026
DOI: 10.58810/vhujs.11.2.2026.974
Views
0
Downloads
0
How to Cite
Ngô, T. T. T. (2026). Guilt and Trauma in Cultural Memory and German Literature after 1945. Journal of Science Van Hien University 11(2), 97-110.
Issue
Volume 11 - Issue 2 (2026)
Section

Main Article Content

Abstract

TThe article belongs to the field of cultural memory and literary studies, focusing on the traumatic experience of the German perpetrator community after World War II and the Holocaust. The study explores the notion collective guilt as a form of cultural trauma and examines how postwar German literature has contributed to expressing, negotiating, and healing this traumatic memory. Based on trauma theory combined with discursive analysis with an examination of German literature after 1945, the article explores the repression of guilt discourse on the pain of the Germans and the subsequent revival of this traumatic memory, when descendant generations confront family memories. The research thereby contributes to expanding trauma theory to perpetrator communities and affirms the role of literature in constructing cultural memory and promoting the process of "struggle of overcoming the past " (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) in post-trauma societies.
Keywords: collective guilt, cultural trauma, memory discourse, postwar German literature

Article Details

References

Adorno, T. W. (2010). Guilt and defense: On the legacies of National Socialism in postwar Germany (J. K. Olick and A. J. Perrin, Eds., & Trans.). Harvard University Press.

Alexander, J. C., Eyerman, R., Giesen, B., Smelser, N. J., and Sztompka, P. (2004). Cultural trauma and collective identity. University of California Press.

Assmann, A. (2006a). Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit: Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik (1st Ed.). Verlag C. H. Beck.

Assmann, A. (2006b). On the (in) compatibility of guilt and suffering in German memory. German Life and Letters, 59(2): 187-200. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0016-8777.2006.00344.x

Bailey, G. (1972). Germans: The biography of an obsession. World Publising

Böll, H. (1949). Der Zug war pünktlich. Friedrich Middelhauve.

Böll, H. (1951). Adam, wo warst du?. Friedrich Middelhauve.

Böll, H. (1959). Billard um halbzehn. Kiepenheuer & Witsch.

Böll, H. (1963). Ansichten eines Clowns. Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag.

Borchert, W. (1947). Draußen vor der Tür. Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag.

Caruth, C. (1991). Unclaimed experience: Trauma and the possibility of history. Yale French Studies, 79: 181-192. https://doi.org/10.2307/2930251

Dückers, T. (2003). Himmelskörper. German: Aufbau-Verlag.

Euringer. R. (1952). Die Sargbreite Leben. G. Grote.

Foucault. M (1981). The Order of Discourse. In R. Yong (Ed.), Untying the Texts: A Post – Structuralist Reader. Routledge and Kegan Paul

Freud, S. (1963). General psychological theory: Papers on metapsychology (The Collected Papers of Sigmund Freud). Collier Books.

Friedrich, J. (2002). Der Brand - Deutschland im Bombenkrieg, 1940-1945. Propylaen Verlag.

Gauch, S. (1979). Eine Erzählung. Athenäum.

Giesen, B. (2004). The trauma of perpetrators: The Holocaust as the traumatic reference of German national identity. In J. C. Alexander, R. Eyerman, B. Giesen, N. J. Smelser and P. Sztompka (Eds.), Cultural trauma and collective identity (pp. 112-154). University of California Press.

Grass, G. (1959). Die Blechtrommel. Hermann Luchterhand.

Grass, G. (2003). Im Krebsgang. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co.

Hahn, U. (2003). Unscharfe Bilder. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt

Harig, L. (1986). Ordnung ist das ganze Leben. Hanser.

Hein (2005). Landnahme. Suhrkamp Verlag.

Herman, J. L. (2022). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books.

Huyssen, A. (2003). Present pasts: Urban palimpsests and the politics of memory. Stanford University Press.

Jaspers, K. (2000). The question of German guilt (E. B. Ashton, Trans.) (J. W. Koterski, Intro.). Fordham University Press. (Original work published 1947)

Jung, C. G. (1973). C.G. Jung Letters: Volume 1, 1906–1950 (G. Adler and A. Jaffé, Eds.) (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press.

Kersten, P. (1978). Der alltägliche Tod meines Vaters: Erzählun. Kiepenheuer und Witsch.

Koeppen, W. (1954). Der Tod in Rom. Stuttgart Scherz und Goverts.

LaCapra, D. (2001). Writing history, writing trauma. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Leupold, D. (2004). Nach den Kriegen: Roman eines Lebens. C.H. Beck.

McGlothlin, E. (2020). Perpetrator trauma. In C. Davis and H. Meretoja (Eds.), The Routledge companion to literature and trauma (pp. 100–110). Routledge.

Meckel, C. (1980). Suchbild. Über meinen Vater. Claassen Verlag.

Mitscherlich, A., and Mitscherlich, M. (1975). The inability to mourn: Principles of collective behavior (B. R. Placzek, Trans.). Grove Press.

Mohamed, S. (2015). Of monsters and men: Perpetrator trauma and mass atrocity. Columbia Law Review, 115(5): 1157-1216.

Rehmann.R. (1979). Der Mann auf der Kanzel. Fragen an einen Vater. Wien: Hanser.

Salomon, E. V. (1951). Der Fragebogen. Rowohlt Verlag.

Schirrmacher, F. (Ed.). (1999). Die Walser-Bubis-Debatte: Eine Dokumentation. Suhrkamp Verlag.

Schmitz, H. (2007). A nation of victims? Representations of German wartime suffering from 1945 to the present. Editions Rodopi BV.

Schwaiger, B. (1982). Lange Abwesenheit. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag rororo.

Sebald, W. G. (1999). Luftkrieg und Literatur: Mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch. Carl Hanser Verlag.

Stolz, W. (2009). Der Begriff der Schuld im Werk von Heinrich Böll (Doctoral dissertation). Kölner Studien zur Literaturwissenschaft (Band 17), Peter Lang Group AG.

Timm, U. (2003). Am Beispiel meines Bruders. Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH.

Treichel, H.U. (1998). Der Verlorene. Suhrkamp Verlag.

Tumler, F. (1950). Heimfahrt: Roman. Pilgrim Verlag.

Zerkaulen, H. (1951). Zwischen Nacht und Tag. Mühlberger.