Year 12: Stasiland Chapter 1

Chapter 1 summary:

Berlin, Winter, 1996

* Anna travels to Leipzig to meet Miriam.

* The text starts in a train station, a transitory setting that immediately establishes Anna as a visitor and observer. Trains often represent a journey, ones that sometimes find a destination, sometimes they do not....indicative of Anna's adventures in Stasiland.

* The colours of Leipzig are magnified through Anna's hangover....colours are too bright and people seem hostile. This convoluted setting prepares the reading for the chaos of the post Berlin Wall landscape.... fragmented/broken and little chance of every being properly unified.  

* Anna converses with a women at the station which shows Funder both using 1st person and also 3rd person when chronicling Germany's history.

* The 'mystery' of Miriam is signposted, leaving the reader to think about possible narratives.

* The reader can now identify who Funder is and what her proposed mission is to be...