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Full Description
Examines the literature produced from the very beginnings of what became the GDR through the 1950s, redressing a tendency of literary scholarship to focus on the later GDR.
Twenty-five years after the demise of the German Democratic Republic, there is perhaps more scholarship being produced on all aspects of that country than ever. This is true also in the field of literary studies, but especially inEnglish-language literary scholarship there has been a strong imbalance toward a focus on the last three decades of GDR literature. The literature of the earlier GDR has mostly been dismissed or ignored by scholars, as the discontinuities between the early and late GDR have been emphasized over the considerable continuities. This book seeks to redress that state of affairs, examining the literature produced from the very beginnings of what became the GDRthrough the 1950s. In doing so it applies to GDR literature the insight gained by scholars over the past few decades that the immediate postwar period was more complex, more meaningful, and more rewarding of study than it was longdeemed to be. Far from all being mere propaganda or rote socialist realism, the literature of the early GDR has much to tell us about the budding socialist state, even as it goes far in explaining the developments in the later GDR.
Contents
Introduction: Reconstructing East German Literature
In the Zone, 1945
Brecht and the Battle of the Spirits, 1949
German Culture's Will to Power, 1949-50
Fascinating Fascists, 1949-50
Typical Heroes, 1951-53
The Danger of Optimism, 1953
The Worst of Times, 1956-58
Literature for Adults, 1956-59
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
Index
