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A History of German Literature
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A History of German Literature
von: Wolfgang Beutin, Klaus Ehler, Wolfgang Emmerich
Routledge, 1993
ISBN: 9780203993224
698 Seiten, Download: 5210 KB
 
Format:  PDF
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Typ: A (einfacher Zugriff)

 

 
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LITERATURE OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (p. 488-489)

The ‘society of literature’ model: life between social pedagogy and censorship

Poets and writers as educators of the people

From its very outset, the GDR ascribed a central and pioneering function to literature in the building and shaping of socialism. ‘Literature under real socialism’ was no detached sphere of social values with laws of its own (as Max Weber held to be typical for modern societies), but an integral component in the overall strategy for creating socialist conditions and educating the ‘socialist personalities’ who would sustain them. It would be false, however, to assume from this a ‘GDR literature system’ consisting of a censorship apparatus that was intrinsically opposed to autonomous literature. It would be truer to say that literature sought from the very outset, and to a high degree, to become integral to the socialist agenda for people’s education. It was this that led to what was perhaps the distinguishing feature of the ‘GDR literature system’, whereby authors were assigned the privileged, if not exaggerated role of people’s educators and social pedagogues. They thus resurrected in a new guise the ‘great writer’ to whom bourgeois society had looked for leadership, prophesy, promises and comfort. Paradoxically, the more the state led by the Socialist Unity Party sank into a crisis of legitimacy and meaning, the truer this became.

This was particularly the case when still in their guise as people’s educators, writers, by then critical, increasingly took on the task in their works of bridging the gulf between the official state line and the utopian promise of ‘true’ socialism, and hence compensating for the growing sense of a lack of meaning. It is often difficult to ascertain without undue over-generalisation the role played by the texts of GDR authors-whether it was the abovementioned role of appeasement, or a genuinely critical one.

The ‘democratisation’ paradigm

From the very founding of the GDR in 1949 the democratic and socialist aims of its cultural policy stood in stark contradiction of its authoritarian, and indeed repressive character. These were headed by the aspiration to eradicate educational privileges as social privileges. The educational material of the nation, including literature, was to be equally accessible to all members of all social classes. According to one concept of the leading literary policy-maker and first Minister of Culture of the GDR, Johannes R.Becher, literary life was subsumed under the term ‘society of literature’. This formula was aimed at the ideal paradigm of a comprehensive ‘democratisation’ (naturally within an authoritarian socialist context) of literature and its incorporation into society at all levels-authorship, material production, distribution, reception and reading. Specifically, it was aimed at a wider distribution and hence wider socio-political impact of a literature that was automatically envisaged as ‘democratic’ and progressive. The ‘literature of society’ model was thus opposed on the one hand to the indisputable ghettoisation of quality literature in non-socialist societies, and on the other to the ‘hostility to poetry’ (Karl Marx), the ubiquitous subjection of literature to market forces, in Western countries, including the Federal Republic. The GDR ‘society of literature’ model, at first glance an attractive one, did indeed have its interesting, literature-fostering aspects. These were nonetheless nullified by their authoritarian and doctrinaire overall context, above all censorship. Socialist Unity Party (SED) policy ultimately obliterated virtually all incipient signs of a vital literary life flourishing in freedom by removing the right of selfdetermination from all groups involved in literary exchange. Authors were told what to write, publishers what to publish, booksellers what to sell, and finally readers told what they could and could not read. The authoritarian practice of controlling and censoring literature led the motto of ‘democratisation’ ad absurdum, thus making a farce of the ideal vision of a ‘society of literature’.

Controlled literature The state apparatus for controlling cultural policy was headed by the Ministry of Culture, backed up by cultural policy steering committees in the various districts, areas and municipalities, etc. Aside from departments for theatre, music, and events, the Ministry of Culture also significantly housed the Central Headquarters for Publishing and Book Sales (formerly the Bureau for Literature and Publishing, 1951–6, and the State Commission for Art Affairs, 1951–4). Its function was ‘the licensing of publishing houses, the issuing of directives to the publishers attached to it, and the ensuring of an appropriate division of labour among them. It further steered, coordinated and monitored the carrying out of annual and future publishing programmes, approved manuscripts for book publishers and other products by non-licensed publishers, and issued publishing permits.’ The Central Headquarters additionally monitored the professional activity and ideology of the book trade and library administration, approving major titles proposed by publishers for large editions, distributed printing materials and paper quotas and organised publishers’ conferences. The Central Headquarters thus formed, it may be said today, the crucial controlling body for a nationwide ‘planned literature’ (Robert Darnton), working particularly closely with the Cultural Department of the SED Central Committee.



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