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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information C om pany 3 0 0 Nortti Z eeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800,521-0600 Order Number 9288268 The aesthetics of everyday life: An analysis of morality in the novels of Giinther de Bruyn Rider, Nancy Ann, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1992 Copyright ©1992 by Rider, Nancy Ann. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 THE AESTHETICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE; AN ANALYSIS OF MORALITY IN THE NOVELS OF GUNTHER DE BRUYN DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By N. Ann Rider, B.A., M.A. **** The Ohio State University 1992 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Prof. Helen Fehervary Prof. Gisela Vitt Prof. Donald Riechel Adviser Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Copyright by N. Ann Rider 1992 For my grandmother Mary Ruprich Klein 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish foremost to thank Prof. Helen Fehervary for guiding me to and through this project and for her scholarly and personal wisdom. Thanks go also to Profs. Gisela Vitt and Donald Riechel for their keen reading and helpful comments. The Institute for Inter national Eduction provided the Fulbright-Hays research grant to the GDR, which made much of the work on this dissertation possible. The technical assistance of Susan Farquhar and Treva Sheets is also greatly appreciated. Finally, I am grateful to Ralph Leek for his critical comments and to him and Samuel for their love and support. Ill VITA July 3, 1957 ...................Born - Mt. Clemens, Michigan 1979 .......................... B.A. , Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1983 .......................... M.A. , Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1987-1988 .................... Fulbright Scholar, Berlin, German Democratic Republic Present ..................... Assistant Professor of German, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Germanic Languages and Literatures Studies in 20th-Century German Literature and Culture, East German Literature, Women's Literature and Theory. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ............................................ Ü ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................... iii VITA .................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ... 1 CHAPTER PAGE I. FROM TAGEBUCH TO ENTWICKLUNGSROMAN: DER HOHLWEG ............................... 20 Der Hohlweg ................................. 21 "Der Holzweg" ............................... 61 II. AN EXAMINATION OF SOCIALIST MORALITY IN EVERDAY LIFE: BURIDANS ESEL .......... 64 Introduction ............................. 64 De Bruyn's Further Development as a W r i t e r ............................... 66 The Cultural Climate and the Struggle to Dominate "Truth" ........... 70 Truth in Everyday L i f e .................... 81 Precursors to Buridans Es e l ................. 83 Constructing Legitimacy through the Narrator ............................... 88 Erp and Self-deception .................... 94 Erp, the B o u r g e o i s ? ........................112 The Contrast of Positive Development . 124 C o n c l u s i o n ................................ 129 III. SOCIALIST MORALITY IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE REALMS: PREISVERLEIHUNG .... 133 Irene Overbeck ............................ 138 Paul Schuster .............................. 146 Teo Overbeck .............................. 151 C o n c l u s i o n ................................ 164 IV. ERAS OF CONTRADICTION: DAS LEBEN DES JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER AND MARKISCHE FORSCHUNGEN .................. 170 Essays on Realism ................. 170 Das Leben des Jean Paul Friedrich Richter ............ 182 Markische Forschunqen ........... .... 196 C o n c l u s i o n ................................ 225 V. CONCLUSION: WELCHE HERRLICHKEIT? .............. 228 Summary of Preceding Chapters ............ 230 Neue Herrlichkeit.......................... 239 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................... 245 VI INTRODUCTION Fast ieder 1st ein Leben lana damit beschâftiqt. Vorurteile loszu- werden. die man ihm in seiner Juqend antrainiert hat. Jede Generation bekommt von der voriqen Verhaltensmafireqeln für eine Welt, die ihre nicht mehr 1st. Selbst zukunftsbewufite Erziehunq qewinnt den Wettlauf mit der Zeit nie, da sie mit Materialien der Verqanq- enheit arbeiten muB. Giinter de Bruyn, Das Leben des Jean Paul Friedrich Richter The following study attempts to broaden the scope of the analysis of social critique postulated in Giinter de Bruyn's work by exploring its moral dimension.^ De Bruyn's novelistic work is situated within a moral dimension that forms the tension between inherited bourgeois values, the political and aesthetic dictates of socialist ideology in the GDR and de Bruyn's charac terization of a critical morality. By analyzing the value hierarchies and moral decision-making of the characters in his novels, I attempt to highlight the tension between these competing, though sometimes ^This study is limited to de Bruyn's novelistic work since the thematic relationship among them is strong. However, de Bruyn's short fiction has gained recognition as well as his work as an editor, espe cially for the series Markischer Dichterqarten (along with Gerhard Wolf), which highlights Berlin writers. complementary, moral dimensions. While I demonstrate how the political-aesthetic dictates of the SED engendered tropes of literary legitimation and influenced de Bruyn's choice of genre, the intention of this study is not to interpret his novels as simple mirrors of socialist aesthetics. Rather, I am particu larly interested in analyzing the critical potential, e.g. the critical morality, manifest in de Bruyn's novels. As a socialist country, the GDR set itself the task of evaluating moral standards for their applica bility to contemporary socialist life. However, that evaluation was often limited to revealing the economic interests behind the moral systems that were created by bourgeois classes. The mentality and many of the values of the historical German bourgeoisie remained entrenched in the GDR Mittelstand. a result of the introduction of socialism "from above."2 The initial task of instituting an antifascist-democratic order was approached through the existing hierarchical struc tures.3 In addition, the "Volksfront" program of the 2 The term Mittelstand might be appropriate in the GDR context, since it describes a unity not of economic class but of "aspiration and fear for the future." The term was delineated by Herman Lebovics (4). 3 See Wolfgang Emmrich. "Alte Strukturen, durch die hindurch der Faschismus sich taglich-alltaglich verwirklicht hatte, wurden dergestalt nicht zerschlagen, sondern beibehalten, auch wenn der Austausch der Personen oft den gegenteiligen Eindruck SED/KPD coalition, which created a "Zwischenetappe" wherein the democratic consciousness of the people could be developed, often suppressed socialist goals in favor of actions that would influence a broader spec trum of people (Mayer-Burger 31-39). Later, once the SED had established power, the move away from the previous antifascist-democratic path in favor of socialist humanism was often only gradual: in the cultural realm an abstract moral humanism continued to be tolerated even as the bogeyman called formalism was being rooted out. Guided by the call of the First Soviet Writers Congress for cultural continuity and by the theories of realism postulated by Georg Lukacs in the 193 0s, GDR cultural adjudicators looked to German bourgeois humanism to find an acceptable historical tradition to link to their socialist idealism. That this tradition was bourgeois never seemed to cause con cern, since its teleology was perceived to be socialist. Even during the period of the heaviest Stalinist influence, 1949 to 1953, bourgeois conscious ness was not dismantled (Mayer-Burger 77). Rather the Verbiirqer 1 ichuncf of Soviet society only strengthened erweckte. Auf hoherer staatlicher Ebene wurde dement- sprechend als Struktur die parlamentarische Republik (unter kommunistischer Domane) restauriert, nicht aber eine sozialistische