Of Writers and Workers: The Movement of Writing Workers in East Germany

ISBN-13: 9781788744973 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 254 str.

William J. Waltz

Opis

The «Movement of Writing Workers» offers a paradigmatic view of the successes and failures of attempts to implement a socialist cultural revolution in East Germany. This study, based largely on original archival research, traces the development of this major cultural initiative and highlights the diversity of state-sponsored literary production.

Spis treści

CONTENTS: Theoretical Underpinnings: Between Myth and Reality - The Question of Soviet Influence - Cultural Heritage and Political Legitimacy - A Socialist Culture: According to Plan - Establishing State Structures and Consolidating Political Power in the 1950s - Culture by Decree: The Twelve Point Plan - Klassenkampf and Volkskunst: Compromises and Concessions in the Early 1960s - Achieving Successes - The District of Halle: Cradle of the BSA - On the Nature of Circle Work - The BSA between Social Revolution and Popular Participation -«Unorganized» Amateur Writers outside the State Fold.

O autorze

William J. Waltz completed his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in German Studies and is currently an Adjunct Professor of German in western Michigan. He previously worked in Halle, Germany as a USIS English Teaching Fellow. This book is the result of his research fellowship at the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies at the Free University, Berlin (2010-2011).