Ulrich Plenzdorf’s “Werther”. The GDR between tradition and innovation

Authors

  • David Matteini University of Florence – University of Siena

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i4.7486

Keywords:

Plenzdorf, Goethe, Werther, GDR, Socialism

Abstract

The essay aims to analyze Ulrich Plenzdorf’s novel Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. in order to understand the socio-cultural climate that swept East Germany between the 1960s and 1970s. After having framed the work in the literary and artistic context of the GDR, we will proceed with a comparison of the different receptions of the work and its protagonist within the Western and Eastern bloc. In this way it will be possible to understand the real demands advanced by the East German author, exponent of a critical current that intended to propose a new model of real socialism, more human and open to the needs of the individual, but not less critical towards of the egotistical and consumerist life patterns of Western capitalist society.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

David Matteini, University of Florence – University of Siena

David Matteini is European PhD in Comparative Literature. He is Contract professor in French language and translation at Università di Siena and Cultore della materia in German literature at Università di Firenze. He was a research fellow at Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Turin and IZEA (Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für die Erforschung der Europäischen Aufklärung), Halle. His current interests include the tensions between classicism and contestation in late Eighteenth Century Europe and the birth of the modern novel and its relationships with the history of science and sociology. He has published contributions and essays about Diderot, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Mercier, De Sade, Xavier de Maistre, Houellebecq, Goethe, Wieland, Büchner, Sterne, Sebald. His first books are to be published by Pacini and Classiques Garnier in 2020: Entusiasmo e rivoluzione. Il caso Adam Lux and L’enthousiasme aux Lumières. Histoire d’une idée anthropologique.

Downloads

Published

2020-12-21

How to Cite

Matteini, D. (2020). Ulrich Plenzdorf’s “Werther”. The GDR between tradition and innovation. SigMa - Rivista Di Letterature Comparate, Teatro E Arti Dello Spettacolo, (4), 207–229. https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i4.7486

Issue

No. 4 (2020): The representation of the Cold war in literature and the arts (1947-1989)

Section

Monographic section I

License

SigMa Journal is an open access, online publication, with licence:

cc-by-80x15_80

 CCPL Creative Commons Attribution

The author retains the copyright of his work whilst granting anyone the possibility “to reproduce, distribute, publicly communicate, publicly exhibit, display, perform and recite the work”, provided that the author and the title of the journal are cited correctly. When submitting the text for publication the author is furthermore required to declare that the contents and the structure of the work are original and that it does not by any means compromise the rights of third parties nor the obligations connected to the safeguard of the moral and economic rights of other authors or other right holders, both for texts, images, photographs, tables, as well as for other parts which compose the contribution. The author furthermore declares that he/she is conscious of the  sanctions prescribed by the penal code and by the Italian Criminal and Special Laws for false documents and the use false documents, and that therefore Reti Medievali is not liable to responsibilities of any nature, civil, administrative or penal, and that the author agrees to indemnify and hold Reti Medievali harmless from all requests and claims by third parties.

Similar Articles

> >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.