Norwegian Literature behind the Berlin Wall

Norwegian Literature behind the Berlin Wall

The cultural history of the GDR is characterized by vicissitudes, by the alternation of thaws and ice ages that made the publishing business quite unpredictable; Barck, Langermann, and Lokatis capture the essence in the title of their seminal work on book production in the GDR: "Jedes Buch ein...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scandinavian studies 2019-12, Vol.91 (4), p.544-567
Main Author: Jager, Benedikt
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
20th century
Analysis
Area studies
Book industry
Book publishing
Case studies
Censorship
Cultural change
Germany (East)
Hamsun, Knut Pedersen (1859-1952)
History
History and criticism
Ibsen, Henrik (1828-1906)
Icelandic & Scandinavian literature
Ideology
Norwegian literature
Personalities
Publishing
Scandinavian studies
Socialism
Writers
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Summary:The cultural history of the GDR is characterized by vicissitudes, by the alternation of thaws and ice ages that made the publishing business quite unpredictable; Barck, Langermann, and Lokatis capture the essence in the title of their seminal work on book production in the GDR: "Jedes Buch ein Abenteuer" (1998; Every Book an Adventure). Directly after the Second World War, before the GDR was founded, lists of unacceptable books were drawn up-for example, the 1946 "Liste der auszusondernden Literatur" (Lists of Literature to be Eliminated). In addition to these assessments, the Head Administration requested statements from other specialists who remained anonymous to the publisher and the authors, and could therefore judge a work without restrictions. Essentially, the Head Administration did not want to contend with any hard decisions.5 However, this left publishing houses and authors in rather precarious situations because a catalogue of criteria or guidelines was never specified, and the decisions of the Head Administration never required justification.
ISSN:0036-5637
2163-8195