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.