Das Bild Des Schriftstellers in Der Ddr-Gegenwartsprosa. (German Text);
Andress, Reinhard Gerhard
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/71052
Description
Title
Das Bild Des Schriftstellers in Der Ddr-Gegenwartsprosa. (German Text);
Author(s)
Andress, Reinhard Gerhard
Issue Date
1988
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Schoeps, Karl-Heinz
Department of Study
German
Discipline
German
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Literature, Germanic
Abstract
In the 1970's and 80's, GDR literature has seen a plethora of prose works in which the main character is a writer. This study analyzes a broad selection of these works, establishing common themes and motifs which characterize the image of the author in current GDR literature. In addition, interviews were conducted with a number of authors to complement the critical analysis of the texts.
Two introductory chapters sketch the reasons behind this literary phenomenon. The increasing economic and political stability of the GDR in the 60's and 70's ran parallel to a liberalization in the official cultural politics of the country. The still limited, nonetheless greater freedom in artistic expression induced many GDR authors to chose an author figure to deal openly with their problems as writers and to reconsider and redefine their role in GDR society.
In the main body of this study, the selected prose works are analyzed according to four dominant themes: historical author figures with implicit parallels to the situation of the GDR author today (among others Gunter de Bruyn's Das Leben des Jean Paul Friedrich Richter and Sigrid Damm's biography on Lenz Vogel, die verkunden Land); the author between "Geist" and "Macht" (for example Stefan Heym's Collin or Joachim Walther's Bewerbung bei Hofe); the author's search for truth within his socio-political and cultural environment (among others Werner Heiduczeks's Tod am Meer and Claus Nowak's Das Leben Gudrun); and the author in his day-to-day existence in the realities of GDR socialism (for example Kluas Poche's Atemnot or Erich Loest's Zwiebelmuster.
The analysis shows author figures in current GDR literature who in spite of many a disappointment in the GDR continue to believe in the principles of Marxism. They attempt to free themselves from the prescribed literature of Socialist Realism, from political opportunism, from the passive adaption to the questionable restraints of their society and from self-censorship in order to deal honestly and critically with the past and present realities of the GDR.
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