num_pages: 419
description: For this first critical anthology in English on the prize-winning author Christa Wolf, Marilyn Sibley Fries assembled twenty provocative essays by leading Wolf scholars in the United States, Great Britain, and the two Germanies. While exemplifying the nature and broad range of reader response to the participatory demands of Wolf's prose, the essays share the common purpose of facilitating access to Wolf's art and message beyond geographical, political, and linguistic boundaries.The contributors displace neither themselves nor Christa Wolf; critical boundaries and cultural codes are employed not to reshape Wolf into "one of us," but to create a potential cultural space of understanding in which the rights of the reader and the writer can be maintained in productive dialogue. These "responses" are no echoes, then, but resonate in different keys the humanistic themes stuck by Wolf.The volume begins with an introduction by Marilyn Fries, followed by Christa Wolf's conversation with Hans Kaufmann in which she articulates her central concept of "subjective authenticity" and posits the dialogical premise of her endeavor. Subsequent essays range from broad readings of Wolf's oeuvre to penetrating examinations of specific works. The collection provides valuable insight into the works of a distinctive voice among this generation's authors.
language: English
title: Responses to Christa Wolf: Critical Essays
titlecomplete: Responses to Christa Wolf: Critical Essays
publisher: Wayne State University