Writing war, against good conscience

Deployments abroad of the Federal Republic of Germany's armed forces are often contextualised in relation to the Second World War, but more concrete representations of war pose a difficult political problem. However, they are important in relation to the possibility of discussing war as an ethico-political issue. This article reads two novels, Gert Ledig's Die Stalinorgel and Martin Walser's Ein springender Brunnen, in order to engage in the particular and break up supposedly clear categories that inform thinking about war. It seeks to examine not the novels' political 'message', but more importantly the issues that may be raised by reading them in a way inspired by Jacques Derrida's work. The readings proposed here seek to resist the closure that would allow an easy conscience and instead explore ways in which the problem of war may be addressed as an ethicopolitical question. © Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 2004.