Description: This book examines the depiction of childhood and the Nazi German past in post-1989 German literature. Developing a new theory of 'childness', the study analyses how contemporary authors use tropes of childhood in their engagements with Germany's National Socialist past. The book features the work of Sebald, Beyer, Walser and Forte.
Review Quotes: «Maguire is very much in control of her subject and provides a fresh and stimulating reading of post-Wende texts which have received substantial scholarly attention. She challenges critics' often peripheral or broad-brush readings of the function of childhood through a robust, focussed, and detailed analysis. The monograph will be a welcome addition to the rapidly expanding field of childhood studies, and most particularly to explorations of childhood and child figures in German-language literature. Indeed, 'childness' may well come to be adopted more widely as a productive critical framework. This study makes a first-rate opening to Peter Lang's new series 'Studies in Modern German and Austrian Literature'.» (Alexandra Lloyd, Germanistik in Ireland, 2014)