Fighting with Words: The Role of Discourses in the Literary Field during the Cultural Cold War in the GDR

Hanna Blum

Jump to Content

Chapter 10 Fighting with Words

The Role of Discourses in the Literary Field during the Cultural Cold War in the GDR

In: Book Diplomacy in the Cultural Cold War

Author:

Hanna Blum

Hanna Blum
Search for other papers by Hanna Blum in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2108-9460

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 259–279

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004728196_012

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), book diplomacy, in the sense of communication and negotiation through books, was used to create a socialist culture and to position the country on the global stage during the cultural Cold War. To prove this claim, this chapter will first illuminate the importance ascribed to books and literature in the GDR by analyzing speeches of leading politicians. This will also reflect the ideological expectations and requirements politics had for agents involved in the literary scene. The next step of the analysis will investigate whether these expectations were met by the agents, at least on a discursive level. By analyzing certain paratexts, it will be shown how editors tried to satisfy the ideological discourses and so contributed to the book diplomacy exercised by the government. It is assumed that this form of discursive control was also used as a form of censorship.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004728196/BP000011.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Book Diplomacy in the Cultural Cold War

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Series: New Perspectives on the Cold War, Volume: 13

Cover Book Diplomacy in the Cultural Cold War

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004728196

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 17 Jun 2025

Subjects

Front Matter

Part 1 Book Diplomacy and Power in the International System

Part 2 Publishers and Literary Agents

Part 3 Translation and the Role of Translators

Part 4 Censorship, Propaganda, and Informal Diplomacy

Back Matter

ProCite

RefWorks

Reference Manager

BibTeX

Zotero

EndNote

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	238	214	8
Full Text Views	11	10	1
PDF Views & Downloads	9	7	1

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 10 Fighting with Words

The Role of Discourses in the Literary Field during the Cultural Cold War in the GDR

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Book Diplomacy in the Cultural Cold War

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Table of Contents

References

Metrics

Metrics