Autobiography, autofiction, metafiction and literature. The case of Stadt der Engel by Christa Wolf

Abstract

The key issue of the book Stadt der Engel by Christa Wolf (1929-2011) revolves around the apprehension of reality nowadays. In this work, published in 2010, there is a simple and irrelevant plot which functions, however, as a narrative frame to support all the modes of discourse present in the text: the romanesque, the historical, the autobiographical. There is even a surreal presence of a guardian angel who helps the female protagonist to withstand the vicissitudes of a foreign country and, in particular, to deal with the "discovery" of her own past as informal collaborator of the former GDR secret police (STASI). This essay aims to show how all these discourses are articulated in one literary tissue.