Conclusion

Summary

MANY LITERARY CRITICS still struggle when confronted with German-language literature from East Central Europe. For the most part, the political and historical events represented in these texts are marginalized or simply ignored. Moreover, the information on the dust jackets of books by authors from East European countries seek to attract readers by presenting prospects of exotic settings and oriental ambiance. Not only is the information misleading; it also reiterates existing stereotypes that describe East Europe as oriental and non-European. The dust jacket of Gregor von Rezzori's Blumen im Schnee, for example, quotes the Berlin Tagesspiegel: “Rezzori portraitiert mit feinen Strichen. Und der Gewinn des Buches ist die exotische Welt, die dabei geschildert wird. Ein bunter orientalischer Teppich, dessen Leuchtkraft auch heute, und heute erst, fasziniert.” The result of transporting the text into an ahistorical realm of tales and ignoring the cultural and political dimensions of the book is that Rezzori's valuable contribution to the cultural history of Bukovina is easily — and sadly — overlooked.

Moreover, the information provided is often false. On the same dust jacket readers learn that Rezzori “erzählt von der Wiederbegegnung mit den vertrauten Ecken von Czernowitz, der fernen Welt der frühen Kindheit: von der Wiederbegegnung mit Czernowitz nach dem Fall des totalitären Ceauşe-scu-Regime.” Although it is true that Ceauşescu's regime fell when he and his wife, Elena, were executed on Christmas Day 1989, Ceauşescu had no connection to Czernowitz.