Tallhover will not die. On the image of the secret agent as an expression of oppression in the German and the Romanian German literature in the eighties and nineties

Abstract

The present paper tries to explain some German and Romanian-German authors’ attempts of interpreting the mechanism that made possible East European communist dictatorships, by creating a complex image of the secret agent. The selected characters are just examples and the selection is by no means exhaustive. The novel characters of Hans Joachim Schädlich, Günter Grass, Herta Müller, Gerd Ungureanu, and Wolfgang Hilbig are explored in connection with the events before, during, and shortly after the regime change at the end of 1989 and are examined as regards their similarities and differences.