Science Fiction Literature in East Germany
East German science fiction enabled its authors to create a subversive space in another time and place. One of the country's most popular genres, it outlined futures that often went beyond the party's official version. Many utopian stories provided a corrective vision, intended to preserve...
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Format: | eBook |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Bern
Peter Lang International Academic Publishing Group
2018
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Series: | DDR- Studien / East German Studies
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | |
Collection: | Directory of Open Access Books - Collection details see MPG.ReNa |
Summary: | East German science fiction enabled its authors to create a subversive space in another time and place. One of the country's most popular genres, it outlined futures that often went beyond the party's official version. Many utopian stories provided a corrective vision, intended to preserve and improve upon East German communism. This study is an introduction to East German science fiction. The book begins with a chapter on German science fiction before 1949. It then spans the entire existence of the country (1949-1990) and outlines key topics essential to understanding the genre: popular literature, socialist realism, censorship, fandom, and international science fiction. An in-depth discussion addresses notions of high and low literature, elements of the fantastic and utopia as critical narrative strategies, ideology and realism in East German literature, gender, and the relation between literature and science. Through a close textual analysis of three science fiction novels, the author expands East German literary history to include science fiction as a valuable source for developing a multi-faceted understanding of the country's short history. Finally, an epilogue notes new titles and developments since the fall of the Berlin Wall. |
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Item Description: | Creative Commons (cc), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode |
Physical Description: | 1 electronic resource (333 p.) |
ISBN: | b14377 9781788745666;9783039107391 |