| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation (,,Responsibility through Memory: Luise Rinser's Autobiographical Writing as a Medium for Connecting with Readers") examines how Luise Rinser used her autobiographical work to communicate with her readers and to inform and educate them. Analyzing the autobiographies and diaries as a form to connect with the readers provides new insights into Rinser's autobiographical works. Rinser demonstrated with these autobiographical works that she had the goal to inform, educate, and maybe even manipulate her readers through a very personal medium. She also acquired the role of a contemporary witness, especially as a credible contemporary witness. This brought to light Rinser's position as a Christian and Socialist, an apparent contradiction which Rinser, however, united within herself her entire life. In view of Rinser's focus on a personal genre, such as the diary and the autobiography, and her strong connection with the audience, such an analysis is long overdue. The study focuses on Rinser's autobiographical works between 1946 and 1997, encompassing nine diaries and two parts of an autobiography (1981 and 1994). The dissertation shows how Rinser informs her readers regarding different topics and which methods she uses to reach her goal. An initial analysis of Rinser's first diary Gefängnistagebuch (1946) sheds light on the author's writing process and the meaning of writing for her as well as its role as a model for the later diaries (1970 until 1997). The following chapter demonstrates how Rinser uses her autobiographical work to educate and inform her readers about certain topics. Given Rinser's position as a Socialist and a Christian, this study focuses on a selection of political topics as well as topics related to religion, Catholicism, and faith. Subsequently this dissertation shows how Rinser influenced her readers' perception of current events and situations by making these more personal and showing them from a different angle than the media. The readers' connection with the author is shown in the following chapter. By analyzing letters from readers to Rinser it becomes clear that she did influence them and that, in fact, communication from both sides took place and is represented in Rinser's correspondence with her readers. Finally, the analysis reveals Rinser's way of telling her own truth. This often did not match the factual truth, and caused her to be strongly criticized. This dissertation demonstrates that Rinser was closely connected to her readers, and how the writing initially helped her, while it later became helpful to readers in mastering problems they faced. It also sheds light on how Rinser's way of writing autobiographies and diaries results in an approximation of the two genres to each other, which means the way she wrote diaries is closer to the way of composing an autobiography than it is to the usual way of writing diaries. Furthermore, the study shows how Rinser used the autobiographical genre to educate and inform her readers. It becomes apparent that Rinser's plan to educate her readers is successful, while her second goal, to communicate truth, succeeds only partially. The contribution of this dissertation to Rinser research is important, because this is the first time that the letters from the readers were considered and analyzed. Additionally, the role of her autobiographical work has not been looked at in this manner before. | |
