Creative Matters

War Triptych

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.12.39921

Keywords:

Second World War, reconciliation, personal memories, triptych

Abstract

This three-part collection of personal memories was inspired by Otto Dix's triptych ‘The War’ (1929-1932). The horrors of war and presence of death Dix exposed in his painting form the implicit point of reference for three short stories of reconciliation in and after the Second World War. The three auto/biographical memories by and ‘as told to’ the author celebrate forgiveness and humaneness among ordinary people in and after times of war as the one way to survive and continue life after the pain and losses caused by war, which are not part of the stories. The condensed form of the triptych recalls Dix's painting as well as the sacredness of suffering and reconciliation as symbolized by conventional Crucifixion triptychs.

Author Biography

Gabriele M. Linke, University of Rostock

Gabriele Linke is Professor emerita of British and American Cultural Studies at the University of Rostock, Germany. After completing her undergraduate studies in English, German and Education and her first and second doctoral degrees at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, she was appointed professor in Rostock in 2001, where she taught at the English Department for twenty years.

Over the years, she has published widely on various issues in ELT and Cultural Studies. In her book on popular literature as cultural memory (Populärliteratur als kulturelles Gedächtnis, 2003), she examines contemporary British and American serial romances with regard to the construction and memorialization of national history. Her interest in Memory Studies has also informed her involvement in Autobiography Studies since 2006. In Cultural Studies, she has focused on postcoloniality and transculturality in British and American film. Furthermore, she has co-edited five thematic volumes of interdisciplinary gender studies, the last of which, dealing with popular culture, gender and agency (Populärkultur – Geschlecht – Handlungsräume), came out in 2018. Previously, however, contemporary autobiography in English evolved as her main field of research and publication, which resulted, for example, in the collection British Autobiography in the 20th and 21st Centuries (2017), co-edited with Sarah Herbe.

Published

2023-03-17

Issue

Vol. 12 (2023): EJLW

Section

Creative Matters

Copyright (c) 2023 Gabriele M. Linke

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