During my 17 years living abroad, I felt more German than ever before. NK: I never would have written this book if I hadn’t left Germany. JA: Why did you feel it necessary to tell this story now?
Even though I was aware of this feeling growing up I didn’t understand what I could do as an individual to address the feeling of paralysis and collective guilt, which I felt stood in the way of my taking responsibility and fully facing my country’s past. It’s a feeling that hasn’t gone away for Germans of my generation. I grew up feeling culturally disoriented because the war had such a major impact on our understanding of who we are. It’s a big part of the German psyche and cultural identity. We are the way we are because of the war and atrocities our country committed. Nora Krug : German society is deeply shaped by our troubled political history. They suggest that your belonging to your home, your Heimat, cannot be taken for granted but must pass through a reckoning with history. John Apruzzese : The words “belonging” and “reckoning” stand out in the title of your graphic memoir. Throughout her journey, she seeks not only to come to terms with her family’s and community’s role in a tragic history but also to plunge the depths of its meaning for contemporary Germany and for all of us today. She uncovers the untold, troubling stories of her family’s past and grapples with the notions of home and identity and how they shape our understanding of ourselves and the world. Krug begins her quest at home, returning to her native Karlsruhe where she delves into the archives and interviews family members. She treads the chasm between the war’s perpetrators and its hero-resisters so she can hone in on the Mitläufer or ‘followers’ - the large gray area of individuals who fall into history’s dark crevices and are forgotten - and she hovers there obstinately in order to finally ask the painful questions no one ever has. On a mild February morning in New York City, I met with German-American illustrator and author Nora Krug to talk about her poignant new graphic memoir about growing up German after the Second World War. In Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, Krug marries image and text in exploring the dark legacy of National Socialism and the Holocaust on post-war German life and the long shadow it continues to cast on German society today. MFA in Creative Writing student John Apruzzese interviewed Nora Krug, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, about her book Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home. literary awards chosen by critics themselves. The awards are presented in six categories - autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry - and are the only U.S. In March, The New School hosted this year’s National Book Critics Circle awards, which honor literature published in the United States in the previous year.
0 kommentar(er)
