Rereading East Germany: the Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More Information
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Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information REREADING EAST GERMANY This volume is the first to address the culture of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a historical entity, but also to trace the afterlife of East Germany in the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall. An international team of outstanding scholars offers essential and thought-provoking essays, combining a chronological and genre- based overview from the beginning of the GDR in 1949 to unification in 1990 and beyond with in-depth analysis of individual works. A final chapter traces the resonance of the GDR in the years since its demise and analyzes the fascination it engenders. The volume provides a ‘rereading’ of East Germany and its legacy as a cultural phenomenon free from the prejudices that prevailed while it existed, offering English translations throughout, a guide to further reading and a chronology. karen leeder is Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in German, New College, Oxford. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information REREADING EAST GERMANY The Literature and Film of the GDR edited by KAREN LEEDER © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs,UnitedKingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107006362 © Cambridge University Press 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Rereading East Germany : the literature and film of the GDR / edited by Karen Leeder. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-107-00636-2 (hardback) 1. German literature – Germany (East) – History and criticism. 2. Motion pictures – Germany (East) – History. 3. Germany (East) – In literature. I. Leeder, Karen J., editor. pt3705.r44 2015 830.9′943109045–dc23 2015024724 isbn 978-1-107-00636-2 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information Contents List of illustrations page vii Notes on contributors viii Acknowledgements xii Chronology xiv Abbreviations, references and translations xvi Introduction 1 Karen Leeder 1 The GDR and its literature: an overview 8 Wolfgang Emmerich 2 Resurrected from the ruins: the emergence of GDR culture 35 Stephen Brockmann 3 DEFA’s antifascist myths and the construction of national identity in East German cinema 52 Seán Allan 4 From Faust III to Germania III: drama in the GDR between 1949 and 1989 70 Holger Teschke 5 Autobiographical writing in the GDR era 88 Dennis Tate 6 Gender in GDR literature 106 Georgina Paul 7 Negotiating the politics and aesthetics of satire: satirical novels in the GDR and beyond 126 Jill E. Twark v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information vi Contents 8 The politics of dialogue: poetry in the GDR 143 Gerrit-Jan Berendse 9 Underground literature? The unofficial culture of the GDR and its development after the Wende 160 Birgit Dahlke 10 Tinker, tailor, writer, spy: GDR literature and the Stasi 180 Alison Lewis 11 Intellectuals and the Wende: missed opportunities and dashed hopes 197 Carol Anne Costabile-Heming 12 After-images – afterlives: Remembering the GDR in the Berlin Republic 214 Karen Leeder Guide to further reading 238 Index 249 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information Illustrations 1 The suffering antifascist body. Erwin Geschonneck as Heinrich page 61 Witting. 2 The heroic antifascist body. Erwin Geschonneck as Walter Krämer. 64 3 Re-imagining the antifascist body. Jaecki Schwarz as Gregor Hecker. 64 4 Helga Paris. From: ‘Müllfahrer’ [Dustmen] (1974). 111 5 Helga Paris. From: ‘Frauen im Bekleidungswerk Treffmodelle’ 118 [Women at the Treff-Modelle Clothing Factory, Berlin] (1984). 6 Invitation to the ‘Zersammlung’ event, 5–11 March 1984, using a 162 drawing by Cornelia Schleime (1984). 7 ‘Writers in Wilfriede Maaß’s studio for a reading organized by 163 Ekkehard Maaß, 20 September 1981’ (1981). 8 Christian Rudat, ‘Berliner Fernsehturm’ [Berlin Television Tower]. 227 9 Michael Wesely, ‘Potsdamer Platz’ (1990). 231 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information Notes on contributors sean allan is Reader in German Studies at the University of Warwick. He has also been a visiting scholar at the DEFA Film-Library (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and at Smith College. He is the co-editor of DEFA: East German Cinema 1946–92 with John Sandford and has published widely on GDR and post-unification German cinema, including essays on Konrad Wolf, Kurt Maetzig and, most recently, the documentary work of Jürgen Böttcher. gerrit-jan berendse is Professor of Modern European Literature and Culture at Cardiff University. He has published Die ‘Sächsische Dichterschule’. Lyrik in der DDR der sechziger und siebziger Jahre (1990) and Grenz-Fallstudien. Essays zum Topos Prenzlauer Berg in der DDR- Literatur (1999), as well as numerous articles on poetry in the GDR. In 2014 he edited a special number of German Life and Letters on German poetry. He is currently writing a monograph on surrealism in the GDR. stephen brockmann is Professor of German at Carnegie Mellon University and was President (2011–2012) of the German Studies Association. He is the author, most recently, of A Critical History of German Film (2010), as well as of Nuremberg: The Imaginary Capital (2006), German Literary Culture at the Zero Hour (2004) and Literature and German Reunification (1999). From 2002 to 2007 he was the mana- ging editor of the Brecht Yearbook, and in 2007 he won the DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies / Humanities. carol anne costabile-heming is Professor of German and Chair of the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Texas, in Denton, Texas. She has published widely on Wende literature and post-Wende Berlin, including Textual Responses to German Unification: Processing Historical and Social Change in viii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00636-2 - Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR Edited by Karen Leeder Frontmatter More information Notes on contributors ix Literature and Film (2001) and Berlin, The Symphony Continues: Orchestrating Architectural, Social, and Artistic Change in Germany’s New Capital (2004). In 2012, she was named the Outstanding German Educator for the Post-Secondary level by the American Association of Teachers of German. birgit dahlke is Visiting Professor of German Literature at the Humboldt University, Berlin. She is the author of Wolfgang Hilbig. A Biography (2011) and Papierboot. Autorinnen aus der DDR – inoffiziell publiziert (1997) and co-editor of volumes on German Life-Writing in the Twentieth Century (2010); Kerstin Hensel (2002); Zersammelt. Die inoffi- zielle Literaturszene der DDR nach 1990. Eine Bestandsaufnahme (2001); LiteraturGesellschaft DDR. Kanonkämpfe und ihre Geschichte(n) (2000) and the bi-annual journal for new literature, essays and criticism Moosbrand. neue texte with Klaus Michael, Lutz Seiler and Peter Walther (1996–99). She is currently setting up a new research centre on Gerhard and Christa Wolf at the Humboldt University, Berlin and investigating authors’ personal libraries as the subject of research. wolfgang emmerich is Professor Emeritus of German Literature, History and Culture