Exchange or deception? Dissonant narratives from the East German provinces by Ingo Schulze and Christian Petzold

Based on the concept of similarity, this contribution aims casts doubt on the dichotomous thinking that dominates currently the public East-West debate in Germany and to complement it with a more nuanced approach. In a transmedial analysis, a double regard croise with regard to the origin of the authors as well as the genre is cast on the representation of the German-German relationship after the fall of communism in literature andfilm. The novel Neue Leben (2005) by Ingo Schulze (born 1962 in Dresden) and the film Yella (2007) by Christian Petzold (born 1960 in Haan near Diisseldorf) will be examined. Written on the eve of the global economic crisis of 2008, both works take a critical look at the post-socialist economic transformation of the former GDR after the fall of the Wall and its social consequences. It will be shown that despite the different socialisation of the two artists, film and novel show significant formal and motivic similarities and can