Border Crossings: An Introduction to East German Prose

by Thomas C. Fox

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Border Crossings is an accessible and comprehensive overview of the work of prose fiction writers in what was the German Democratic Republic. Thomas C. Fox introduces readers to the best and most important East German writers-among them Christa Wolf, Jurek Becker, Anna Seghers, Stefan Heym, and Franz Fühmann-restricting his study to work that is available in English translation so that readers who do not know German will be able to read for themselves the literature he discusses. During a show more period of forty years, writers in the German Democratic Republic struggled with increasing success to free themselves from a smothering and paternalistic governmental embrace, thus anticipating, and helping to constitute, the events of 1989. In its relentless interrogation of the status quo, in its persistent ability to create alternatives, and in its call for more openness, literature in East Germany served as an outlet for energies and ideas that might have been channeled, in the West, into politics, philosophy, or journalism. In addition to discussing the role that literature played in shaping historical events, Fox shows that it can be appreciated simply as literature, outside of its political contexts. show less

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Genres
Literature Studies and Criticism, Fiction and Literature
DDC/MDS
838.914099431Literature & rhetoricGerman & related literaturesGerman miscellaneous writings1900-1900-19901945-1990Individual authors not limited to one specific form : description; critical appraisal; biography; collected works
LCC
PT3723 .F68Language and LiteratureGerman, Dutch and Scandinavian literaturesGerman literatureProvincial, local, colonial, etc.East Germany
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English
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Paper
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2