Generationsbücher

Everyone belongs to a generation. But to which one? Who does belong, who doesn't? And what does that mean for the individual? Authors repeatedly attempt to answer these questions in various articles, non fiction books, and novels. This dissertation is devoted to literary and expository representations of synchronous social generations, with a focus on publications since the 1990s. It thus offers a systematic literary analysis of a group of texts that has not yet been extensively researched.
Generations do not exist 'in themselves' as social facts, but always beg in to exist with their naming and description. Once a particular generation is designated as such, it is possible to ascribe certain fixed characteristics and traits to it. In public discourse, 'generation' becomes a popular pattern of explanation and attribution at the end of the 20th century.
The term 'generation books' is used in this paper to define descriptions of a synchronous generation, which, as narrative non fiction books, mix (auto)biographical elements with popular scientific observations. They deal with the development of a defined generation and describe its typical characteristics. With their claim to reflect and capture concrete, historical reality, they are related to general provisions on 'non fiction' and journalistic text types such as reportage and news magazine history. Generation books do not constitute generations primarily by reference to concrete political or economic events and/or goals, but show them as shaped by the shared experience of consumption, lifestyle, and the reception o f popular culture.
Nine exemplarily selected generation books are used to show the ways in which a generation is asserted in the text. Generation books can be classified at an interface between non fiction, journalistic writing, and fiction. They are united by various common features that allow us to speak of a "genre of generation books." The characteristics of this genre are presented in a differentiated way in this paper.