A comprehensive survey of German literary writers’ political writing and involvement since 1945.
George Orwell said that all writing is political; but the writers of some nations and some periods are more political than others. German writers after 1945 have exemplified such heightened politicization, and this book considerstheir contribution to the democratic development of Germany by looking principally at their directly political, non-fictional writings. It pays particular attention to writers and the student movement of the 1960s and ’70s, when some proclaimed the death of literature and called for a turn to direct political action. Yet writers in both parts of Germany gradually came to identify with their respective states, even if the idea of one Germany never entirelydisappeared. The unification of 1989-1990, in which this idea astonishingly became reality, posed a major (and some would say unmet) challenge to writers in both East and West. After looking at this period of intense political activities, the book considers the continuing East/West division and changing attitudes to the Nazi past, asking whether the intellectual climate has swung to the right. It also asks to what extent political involvement has been a generational project for the immediate postwar generation and is less important for younger writers who see the Federal Republic as a ‘normal’ democratic state.
Stuart Parkes is Emeritus Professor of German from the University of Sunderland (UK).
Mục lục
The Aftermath of War and the New Beginning
The 1950s: The Deepening Division
The 1960s: Taking Sides
A West German Interlude: Writers and Politics at the Time of the Student Movement
The 1970s: Writers on the Defensive
The 1980s: On the Threshold
Intermezzo: Writers and the Unification Process
Segue: Political and Literary Developments Since Unification
East and West
New Views on the Past
A Swing to the Right?
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