Although a sense of loss permeates Stasiland, it is ultimately an uplifting book. Discuss.

A sense of encouragement is woven throughout Funder’s Stasiland, yet grief overwhelms the positivity. The text comprises stories of courage and hope, but overall the reader is left feeling mournful. Funder’s anecdotes of failed lives highlight the loss of hope felt by herself and her characters. She uses structure as a means of diffusing the tragedy of her encounters, as well as symbolism and descriptive language.
A feeling of hopelessness engulfs several of the stories in Funder’s collection. Although Frau Paul essentially finds closure, her life is still overruled by the losses she experienced. Funder describes her as a ‘teary, guilt-wracked wreck’, and this shows that she is unstable and cannot find peace. ‘She seems wobbly’ and the audience is led to believe that her closure is not what it seems. Even though she has been reunited with her son, the relationship is tense and uncomfortable for Frau Paul, as she is still left with the baggage of the choice she made. Klaus Renft, the ex-musician, lives in a state of oblivion, yet he is ‘a survivor’. ‘Cushioned by alcohol, his landings are soft,’ and he uses his self-destructive habits, smoking and drinking, to escape from his nauseating past. The repetition of the colour ‘grey’ symbolises his relationship with the GDR. Klaus Renft has been damaged, and his only comfort now is music and liquor, a man ‘singing himself happy’. Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler lives in the hope of socialism returning, that and nothing more. He is in hiding, using his wife’s ‘maiden name, not his on the doorbell,’ so the people won’t disturb him. ‘”Nothing “angers” me!”… He is incandescent with rage,’ signals a man living in denial. His strong and overpowering beliefs in a world that has disappeared show that there is little hope for his future, and Funder makes sure that her audience feels it too.

Yet hope manages to seep through, as some characters find peace. Julia, who has lived a life full of frustration escapes to another world. She is happy in her new life, and this causes the reader to feel encouragement. A minor character, Uwe Schmidt, also finds solace in the success of his life-long search for the right partner. These small critical truths uplift the text, but negativity still outweighs. This is very evident again with Frau Paul; the end to her story doesn’t really replace the grief placed upon her. Miriam’s drastic change, depicted in symbolism, is also overwhelmed with the feeling of no hope. She transforms from ‘a maiden, safe in her tower,’ to ‘a maiden blowing smoke in her tower,’ and this symbolises a life lived in loss, and a life ending with no end. Overall, Miriam’s main driving force to keep going, her quest for Charlie, is out ruled.
The placement and order of characters is imperative to the message of the text. All the anecdotes of hope are permeated with inverse emotions. The creative non-fiction is started with hopelessness, ‘No-one is interested in these people.’ The text is bookended by Miriam, who starts her story in sadness, and ends it in false hope. There is no ending to her suffering. The Puzzler men and women, placed before Miriam’s final words, conclude that, essentially, no one is going to find out what they want to know, ‘in the next 375 years’. Funder tries to contrast the text’s bleak message by interjecting the stories with colour as a symbol. The contrast between chapter titles ‘Berlin, Winter’ and ‘Berlin, Spring’ prove that she aims to uplift the message, and her descriptions of ‘swings and roundabouts’ add to this. Yet Miriam punctures her efforts as the fact that she will never know the truth of her husband’s death is highlighted. Once again, hope is overpowered by grim outlooks.
The saturation of grief in the text is too strong for any inkling of happiness to take over. ‘At sixteen you are invulnerable,’ but all characters grow up and it is realised that this is not the case. Whatever sense of hope that is found, is too easily outshone by the miseries of life.