The Portrayal of the Late 1950s in GDR Literature, Published Before and After the Fall of the Wall in 1989

Eckart, Gabriele 2008. The Portrayal of the Late 1950s in GDR Literature, Published Before and After the Fall of the Wall in 1989. New Readings 9 , pp. 1-6. 10.18573/newreadings.60

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (188kB) | Preview

Abstract

This essay examines different literary portrayals of the late 1950s in the GDR in texts of Anna Seghers, Christoph Hein, and Wolfgang Hilbig. While in Seghers’ narrative Vierzig Jahre der Margarete Wolf, published in 1957, the GDR of this time is shown as the embodiment of the utopia of a classless and truly democratic society, in her Der gerechte Richter, published after the Fall of the Wall, the GDR of the late 1950s is portrayed as a Stalinist society whose leaders are betraying the ideas of humanism and justice. Christoph Hein in his literary depiction of the late 1950s in the GDR in the novel Horns Ende (1985) points to a severe lack of political justice in that country. Wolfgang Hilbig in the narrative Der Brief (1985) shows convincingly that not only political justice, but also social justice was lacking there.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Modern Languages
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D839 Post-war History, 1945 on D History General and Old World > DD Germany H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History P Language and Literature > PT Germanic literature
Publisher:	Cardiff University Press
ISSN:	1359-7485
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	17 January 2020
Last Modified:	11 May 2023 21:47
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/128823

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item