In this Book

Theater in the Planned Society: Contemporary Drama in the German Democratic Republic in its Historical, Political, and Cultural Context

Book
By H. G. Huettich
1978
Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
Series: UNC Studies in Germanic Languages and Literatures
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summary
This study presents the historical development of topical drama in the German Democratic Republic from 1945 to 1975. The author investigates the sociopolitical function of both dramas and dramatists such as Karl Grünberg, Friedrich Wolf, and Erwin Strittmatter during the various transitional stages of the GDR's growth toward a socialist society. The substantive, critical study of plays, authors, productions, and dramatic theory is supplemented by a critical analysis of the Socialist Unity Party's cultural and literary policies during the GDR's turbulent history. While Western critics tend to isolate individual GDR dramas and interpret them out of context, Huettich explores in depth how the cultural policy of the GDR significantly helped shape the course of post-World War II drama in the 'planned society.'

Table of Contents

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Cover

Half-Title Page

pp. i

Series Note

pp. ii

Title Page

pp. iii

Copyright

pp. iv-vi

Dedication

pp. vii-viii

Table of Contents

pp. ix-x

Preface

pp. xi-xiii

Acknowledgments

pp. xiv

Addendum to the Preface

pp. xv

Introduction: Theater in Flux, 1945–1949

pp. 1-9

I. Veterans Into the Breach: Grünberg, Wolf and Wangenheim

pp. 10-24

II. The Emergence of the Socialist Perspective: 1951-1956

pp. 25-49

III. Toward a Socialist National Theater

pp. 50-58

IV. The Dialectic Digression

pp. 59-70

V. Brown Coal Dialectics

pp. 71-84

VI. In Search of the Mainstream

pp. 85-93

VII. Collective Bucolics

pp. 94-111

VIII. The Bourgeois Aesthetic: Up Against the Wall

pp. 112-122

IX. Heavy Traffic on the Party Line: The Plays of 1963–1964

pp. 123-131

X. Ruminations and Rejections: The Eleventh Plenary Inquisition

pp. 132-140

XI. The Contemporary Topical Drama

pp. 141-154

Bibliography

pp. 155-161

Index

pp. 162-171
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