Socialism and Adventure, Politics and Entertainment: Martine Monod's N Ovels in the GDR
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18 [vc/ts on Litemlllr Socialism and Adve nture, Politics and Entertainment: Martine Monod's N ovels in the GDR Ina Pfitzner tudies concerning the role of IiteraLUre in the German Democra tic SRepublic have often focussed on the manner in which au thors ex pressed themselves within the strictures of genre, fo rm and contents imposed, whi le little attention has beel1 paid to the actual rC:Jdi nf, pref ercllces o f East German readers. Just as the po pular discourse did nOl always correspond to the official discourse, readers did l 'J ot always read what they were supposed 1.0 read, and if they did, they did not always do so for the "right" reasons. The success of French :luthor M:ucine Mona d (192 1-85) in the G OR in tile 19 50's and I%O's demonstrates that her works, in cor po l ~ l l itig the familiar, c molllcal tmclilions of Critical and Socialist Realisms, also met the desire for clllcrtai nmenl and fo r Ihe "depayscmcJ1 l '" to glamourous, sometimes historical, for ei gn worlds through read ing. This interesti ng combination a CCO UlllS for the popula rity of Monod's novels :Hnong a wide public but also explains why this aut hor was publ ished in the G DR and pro moted as ;1 literary figure. As almost eve ry aspect of li fe. iitcr:.ltu re in the GDR was regu lated by party programs and official resolutions. 'rile "!-I;mptverw:lltung Verlage und I ~ u c h h and el" (Administration fo r Publish ing I louses and Book Tmde) of the Min ist ry orC ulture controlled publishing houses.l Deciding what was acceptable for publi cat ion and consumption, this administration established a canon of iileralU re for thc G O!\.. TIllS canon included authors from different time periods and countries who were linked to a hum:lnist and realist tradition culminating in the offi Cial doct rine of Socialist RC:l lism. School curricula and hook reviews in the press also propagated what and how thc governmcllt wanted its citi zens to read.l O ftenlimes, forewords and afterwords silu,lled for- Ff}C1I5 Oil UUI"tIIUI" Volume 7 (2000) I I Monad's Novels in the GDR 21 20 Pocus 011 LiteralllY elgl. works i1l their historical <l nd contexts and prov ided an Volk," whi ch lIluch later during tlte fall of 1989 became the most p o li~i c :11 ill terpretatio n [o r the reader. I lowevcr, It W:1S up to pointcd slogall. "Wit' sind cb s Volk, and we t lterdore citoosc ourselves r~adcr s tI. l c /ll sclv~s to choose frolillhe variety of genres, authors, :lnd lime periods what we like to read." East German readers had their own vcrsio n o f ~\V .\.1 1 - able, alld significanli y, to choose what nOl lO reac\. l'rcqllclltly, socialism, o ne that itlciUlled d lcm as active participan ts wltile resisting ~ea l l s l novels were a popuhr choice, corresponding to the dcm:lll.d. for ill1car, indoct rination and coercion ("G:ingcl ung") in thei r private li ves. traditional narration and thereby an accessible :'Ind [alm!.:tr W'J.y of Monad's novels ami, to a lesser extent, her perso na conformed to the wnt1l1g. special , privatc brand of social ism that East German readers had crc Martine Monad was onc of these realist authors, whose popu- ated for themselves. Atthc same tillie, her vita as resistance fighter :lncl 4 larity in the GDR as well as in other Eastern European count ries was Communist made her the idcal proponent of a positi vc, affirmative to due to the rotCl that her novels were acceptable for publication but image of the socialist cause and of the G OR itself. also pabtable for the average reader. As a Communist a Coming from a middle-class background, Martine Monod w r it~r ~ro lll capitalist country, Monod val idated the ex istence of the socl.allst sys- carned a licence in English fro m the So rbonnc in Paris. In 1941 , she tem in her novels and later condoned the contemporary politics of the join ed the French resistance movement where she met her futll re hus G DR governlllent explicidy ill person:,l interviews. Espousing so n~c band, FF.llll;oi s Monad, Communist poet and editor of thc publishing of the principles of Socialist Realism in her was rooted III house Editeurs Fr:mp is Reunis. After Wodd War II , shc hL'Camc ;1 nove l ~, s h~ lite humanist, Crilicial Realist tradition of canolllca l J-t'cnch authors t'ncmi>cr of thc French Communist Party. In 1948, her first novel from the 19th centu ry. Combined with historical and Malacerl (/ was se ri,llizcd in the newspaper Ce Soir by Loll is Amgo tl adventuro ~l s ploLS, this made her works acccssible to a variety of readers from dlf and published by Editeurs Franpis Reunis in 1950. Colllinurng to ferellt educational backgrounds. Monad's novels also responded to the work as a film critic an d journalist, Monad was activc in the Union East German reader's desi re for entertain ment, for "depaysell1 el1l:" I des Femmes Frnm;.aises, a Communist women's organizati on, and the Iler "exotic" characters and sets take the rcader fa r away from their Comitc National des Ecrivains, which unitcd ex-Resistance writers. own world, far away from "Politinformatioll," "Kampfg rupp~," She transl:\led novels from English and wo rked fo r newspapers like "Wandzeitunge n," :\nd other realit ies which structured ~ve r yd ay I, fc LibeYlllion and Les /..etl res FTanraues, again under Ar.1go n's direction. for most East Genmllls. Monad created human worlds WIthout dwell- In 1954, she completed hcr novel U! Whuky de la Reine (The Qlleen's ing on violence and misery :\s Illany early Soviet nov.cls did. , Whisky), for which she received the Prix Feneon. In 1955. Ed itcurs Book rcviews illustrate reviewers feared t ll:\t III Monad s nov Reunis published Ir er following sha n novel Le Nuage (The ClolU~. fo l els enten:\inmellt might prev:\il ove r the politicallllessagc. Criticizing lowed by No rmandie·Niem ell in 1960. Fl'Om 196 1 on, MOllod wo rked her writ ings for lacking litel"3ry quality, they indirectl y scolded ~ h c for /-/umanile, tbe newspaper of the French Communist Pany. where East Gerlllan reader for re:\di ng for thc wrong reasons. If the saylllg she latcr headed the political depanmcnt of the Sunday edition. In goes that every people has the government it deservcs, the GDR gov 1968, she published Israel lei qlleje I'ai vu (lsmel As I Saw It), in which ernment did not have the people they desired. T h e avcrage reader rea~ she condemns the politics and warfare of lsrael. Her repon Deux 011 for leisure and retreated to a less politicized space apart from offi lrou choses qlte je 5(11S de [,Union suvihiquc (T'WO Or Three 77Jmgs/ KlIow t~l e cial doctrine, a space in which social ism and its ideas of ~q uallty all~ About the Suviel U'lioll)~ (1973) is an enthusiastic and melodramatic peace had thei r pbce without being dD?ma. as s account of hCt' visit to the Soviet Union. G lo rifying the existing sys ~u s t Marlll1 ~ ~ o n od books proposed many East Germans believed l.Il a bener, SOCIalist world tem and not offering any critical insight, the book is difficult to read :'Ind werc at thc S:\I11C time intrigued by adventure) gbmour and ro- I and suggests that she truly kncw little about the reality there. Inance. This discrepancy between official and popular disc~ u ~es con MOllod belonged to a group of writcrs and journ:,lisLS oper:lt stitutes a St:lle ment in itself. Illlplicidy this is saying nwu' slIld das illg apart from the French literary establishment and from attempLS at 22 rTJCIIS on LileralJlr Monad's Novels in the G DR 23 :l.V:ml-gardc. At a lime, where literature ill Fromee was do minated by papers. reponed. 011 Monod's visits to Berlin and highlighted her role as existentialist thinking, where litcrat"y magaz.incs su ch as 7e/ Quel (\960) a llIc(lIa :lUthonty. NOllVCffU :md L'EpiJcmere (1971 -73), the writers of the Roman and t he When Marline Monad visited the CDR twice 111 1961 three playwrights of the 1MnlYe de l'Absllyde proposed !lew esthetics and of her works had already csl:l.b lished her there as a " I. - II' " I . lK.""S· l~ sc er au- where the "College de Ia Pataphysi quc" ridicul ed the self.importance t lor. As IS obvlo.us from the articles, she received much attention, not of the literary csl:lbli shmelll , the writers around Les LeI/res Franraises ~o much ~1S a wntcr but:"ls an "in stitution," a famil iar role for writers had;J, mo re positivistic :lpproach to literature. A ll "'e ngaged " audlO r in • HI both !' rance and the CDR.' Due to her background, Monod lent the manner of the ex islclllialisLS, Moned's life ami her works were h erse~f as a commelll:llOr all the social and political situation. She also in fo rmed by her Resistance ex perience and her p o litic:l 1 activity as a fUll ctloned as.a sort of "ambassador," who upon return Communist.