Knowledge of the Stasi in the East German literary sphere : surveillance, secrecy, and revelation / Sara Jones, Tara Talwar Windsor, and Betiel Wasihun.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jones, Sara, 1980- author.

Windsor, Tara Talwar, author.

Wasihun, Betiel, author.

Series:

Culture and power in German-speaking Europe, 1918-1989

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Germany (East). Ministerium für Staatssicherheit.

Germany (East).

Socialism and culture--Germany (East).

Socialism and culture.

Germany (East)--Intellectual life.

Germany (East)--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

vii, 221 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Rochester, New York : Camden House, 2026.

Summary:

"While much scholarship has explored what the East German Ministry for State Security - the Stasi - knew about writers, publishers, editors, and others involved in the GDR's literary sphere, none has asked what these groups knew about the Stasi, how they acquired that knowledge, and how it circulated. The present book flips the approach of existing scholarship to ask those questions, thus offering an innovative approach to studying the production and circulation of literature in East Germany. It uncovers the myriad ways in which those who wrote, published, or supported literary production that was critical of the state negotiated, circumvented, and actively confronted the threat posed by surveillance and control. The study draws on original interviews, Stasi files, and writings by Uwe Kolbe, Ekkehard Maaß, Christa Moog, Gabriele Stötzer, Bernd Wagner, and Bettina Wegner, as well as works by Stefan Heym, Ralf-Günter Krolkiewicz, Günter Kunert, and Christa Wolf. The book shows that the Stasi was a kind of 'public secret'-a known unknown that was positioned between revelation and concealment. It engages with theoretical frameworks drawn from anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, surveillance studies and cultural studies to reconceptualize the relationship between knowledge, secrecy, intuition, trust, and agency in an authoritarian context"--Page [4] of cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-214) and index.

ISBN:

1640141952

9781640141957

OCLC:

1563980773