German Reunification and the Legacy of GDR Literature and Culture PDF Download

Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004359788
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Since the tumultuous events of 1989/1990, writers, cultural practitioners and academics have responded to, reconstructed and reflected upon the process and enduring impact of German reunification. This bilingual volume provides a nuanced understanding of the literature and culture of the GDR and its legacy today. It explores a broad range of genres, combines perspectives on both lesser-known and more established writers, and juxtaposes academic articles with the personal reflections of those who directly experienced and engaged with the GDR from within or beyond its borders. Whether creative practitioners or academics, contributors consider the broader literary and intellectual contexts and traditions shaping GDR literature and culture in a way that enriches our understanding of reunification and its legacy. Contributors are: Deirdre Byrnes, Anna Chiarloni, Jean E. Conacher, Sabine Egger, Robert Gillett, Frank Thomas Grub, Jochen Hennig, Nick Hodgin, Frank Hörnigk, Therese Hörnigk, Gisela Holfter, Jeannine Jud, Astrid Köhler, Marieke Krajenbrink, Hannes Krauss, Reinhard Kuhnert, Katja Lange-Müller, Corina Löwe, Hugh Ridley, Kathrin Schmidt.

Author: Gisela Holfter
Publisher: Brill / Rodopi
ISBN: 9789004364028
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : de
Pages :

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Book Description
This collection of academic articles and personal reflections explores German reunification and the legacy of GDR literature and culture. It examines a broad range of genres and combines perspectives on both lesser-known and more established writers.

Author: Karen Leeder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107006368
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
The first volume in English about the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a cultural phenomenon, with essays by leading scholars providing a chronological and genre-based overview along with close readings of individual works. It addresses the history and context of GDR culture, including the two decades since its decline.

Author: Stephen Brockmann
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1640141545
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Shows that while the GDR is generally seen as - and mostly was - an oppressive and unfree country, from late 1989 until autumn 1990 it was the "freest country in the world" the dictatorship had disappeared while the welfare system remained. Stephen Brockmann's new book explores the year 1989/1990 in East Germany, arguing that while the GDR is generally seen as - and was for most of its forty years - an oppressive and unfree country, from autumn 1989 until the autumn of 1990 it was the "freest country in the world," since the dictatorship had disappeared while the welfare system remained. That such freedom existed in the last months of the GDR and was a result of the actions of East Germans themselves has been obscured, Brockmann shows, by the now-standard description of the collapse of the GDR and the reunification of Germany as a triumph of Western democracy and capitalism. Brockmann first addresses the culture of 1989/1990 by looking at various media from that final year, particularly film documentaries. He emphasizes punk culture and the growth of neo-Nazism and the Antifa movement - factors often ignored in accounts of the period. He then analyzes three later semiautobiographical novels about the period. He devotes chapters to dramatic films dealing with German reunification made relatively soon after the event and to more recent film and television depictions of the period, respectively. The final chapter looks at monuments and memorials of the 1989/1990 period, and a conclusion considers the implications of the book's findings for the present day.

Author: Stephan Ehrig
Publisher: Peter Lang Limited, International Academic Publishers
ISBN: 9781787070721
Category : Germany (East)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The GDR Today promotes interdisciplinary approaches to East Germany by gathering articles from a new generation of scholars in a variety of fields. Exploring East German everyday life, cultural policies, memory and memorialisation, the volume aims to offer new impulses to the study of the GDR.

Author: Leslie A. Adelson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : German literature
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Author: Patricia Anne Simpson
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson
ISBN: 1611474566
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
In post-Wall Germany, violence—both real and imagined—is increasingly determining the formation of new cultural identities. Patricia Anne Simpson’s book focuses on the representation of violence in three youth subcultures often characterized by aggression as they enact a rivalry for supremacy on the new German “street”—the author’s operative metaphor to situate the cultural discourse about violence. The selected literary texts, films, and music exemplify the urgent need for a sustained debate about violence as an aspect of both social reality and the national imaginary. Simpson’s study discloses the relationship between narratives of violence and issues of immigration, ethnic difference, and poverty. Her lucid readings examine the ways in which violence is grounded in the asphalt of Germany’s new street. This interdisciplinary study identifies the motivations, decisions, and consequences of violent acts and the stories that convey them. Simpson draws examples from popular genres and subcultures, including punk, hip hop, and skinhead sounds, styles, and politics. With theoretical sophistication and analytical clarity, the author locates the contested territory of the street within larger European contexts of violence while paying careful attention to the particularities of German history. She reveals new insights into the construction of citizenship, masculinity, and contemporary ethics. In addition, Simpson demonstrates the importance of concepts embedded in the representation of violence, including revised definitions of heroism, community, and evolving ideas of fraternity, family, and home.

Author: Jens Gieseke
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782382550
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
A well-balanced and detailed look at the East German Ministry for State Security, the secret police force more commonly known as the Stasi. “This is an excellent book, full of careful, balanced judgements and a wealth of concisely-communicated knowledge. It is also well written. Indeed, it is the best book yet published on the MfS.”—German History The Stasi stood for Stalinist oppression and all-encompassing surveillance. The “shield and sword of the party,” it secured the rule of the Communist Party for more than forty years, and by the 1980s it had become the largest secret-police apparatus in the world, per capita. Jens Gieseke tells the story of the Stasi, a feared secret-police force and a highly professional intelligence service. He inquires into the mechanisms of dictatorship and the day-to-day effects of surveillance and suspicion. Masterful and thorough at once, he takes the reader through this dark chapter of German postwar history, supplying key information on perpetrators, informers, and victims. In an assessment of post-communist memory politics, he critically discusses the consequences of opening the files and the outcomes of the Stasi debate in reunified Germany. A major guide for research on communist secret-police forces, this book is considered the standard reference work on the Stasi.

Author: Julia Hell
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822319634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Employing an approach informed by Slavoj Zizek's work on the Communist's sublime body and by British psychoanalytic feminism's concern with feminine subjectivity, Hell first examines the antifascist works by exiled authors and authors tied to the resistance movement. She then strives to understand the role of Christa Wolf, the GDR's most prominent author, in the GDR's effort to reconstruct symbolic power after the Nazi period.

Author: Hester Vaizey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198718748
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
The real life stories of eight East Germans caught up in the dramatic transition from Communism to Capitalism by the fall of the Berlin Wall - and what they feel about life after the Wall.