The Author's Dimension: Selected Essays

The Author's Dimension finally makes Christa Wolf's critical writing available in English. Readers of her fiction will recognize her elegant and demanding prose and the passion with which she continually examines the individual's, in particular the writer's, relationship to his or her society. But this collection also reveals the way in which Wolf approaches her art. Spanning the past three decades, the essays focus primarily on the role of the writer and literature today. Wolf interviews herself on the development of The Quest for Christa T. In a witty and probing essay on reading, she imagines her life without books and removes each layer of literary influence, from Snow White to All Quiet on the Western Front. There are perceptive essays about other writers, including Thomas Mann, Karoline von Gunderrode, Max Frisch, and Ingeborg Bachmann. Finally, the sections On War and Peace and Politics and The End of the German Democratic Republic demonstrate the ways in which Wolf's political thinking has evolved and cast light on the political situation in East Germany prior to German reunification. With its impassioned celebration of literature, this collection will interest not just those already familiar with Wolf's work but anyone engaged in the acts of writing and reading today.