Socialist Realism in Central and Eastern European Literatures under Stalin

Description

Study on the export of Socialist Realism into Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.

Socialist Realism in Central and Eastern European Literatures' is the first published work to offer a variety of alternative perspectives on the literary and cultural Sovietization of Central and Eastern Europe after World War II and emphasize the dialogic relationship between the ‘centre’ and the ‘satellites’ instead of the traditional top-down approach. The introduction of the Soviet cultural model was not quite the smooth endeavour that it was made to look in retrospect; rather, it was always a work in progress, often born out of a give-andtake with the local authorities, intellectuals and interest groups. Relying on archival resources, the authors examine one of the most controversial attempts at a cultural unification in Europe by providing an overview with a focus on specific case-studies, an analysis of distinct particularities with attention to the patterns of negotiation and adaptation that were being developed in the process.

Acknowledgements; Introduction, Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson- Skradol; Part 1. INSTITUTIONS; Chapter One How Socialist Realism Was Exported to Eastern European Countries and How They Got Rid of It, Hans Günther; Chapter Two Literary Monopolists and the Forging of the Post– World War II People’s Republic of Letters, Rossen Djagalov; Chapter Three Once Dr Faul Has Left: The Agony of Socialist Realism in Poland, 1955– 56, Evgeny Dobrenko; Chapter Four From Literature Censored by Poets to Literature Censored by the Party: Censorship in the Czech Literary Culture of 1945– 55, Pavel Jan á č ek; Chapter Five The Demise of ‘Socialist Realism for Export’ in 1947: VOKS Receives John Steinbeck and Robert Capa, Vladislav M. Zubok; Chapter Six The Soviet Factor and the Institutionalization of Bulgarian Literature after World War II, Tatiana V. Volokitina; Chapter Seven Cultural Renewal in Eastern Germany – Mission Impossible for Soviet Cultural Offi cers and German Anti- Fascists?, Anne Hartmann; Part 2. DYNAMICS; Chapter Eight Socialist Writers and Intellectuals in a Divided Nation: The Early GDR Experience, Helen Fehervary; Chapter Nine Stalinism’s Imperial Figure: Hero or Clerk of the Pax Sovietica ?, Benjamin Robinson; Chapter Ten From Avant- Garde to Socialist Realism: Continuities and Discontinuities in Hungarian and Romanian Literature, Imre J ó zsef Bal á zs; Chapter Eleven The Short Life of Socialist Realism in Croatian Literature, 1945– 55, Ivana Peru š ko; Chapter Twelve Literature in Socialist Yugoslavia: Constructing Collective Memory, Institutionalizing the Cultural Field, David Norris; Chapter Thirteen ‘Yesterday and Tomorrow’: The Forms of the Slovak Literature of Socialist Realism, 1945– 56, René Bílik; Chapter Fourteen Socialist or Realist: The Poetics of Politics in Sovietized Hungary, Melinda Kalmár; Part 3. DISCOURSES; Chapter Fifteen Introducing Socialist Realism in Hungary, 1945– 51: How Politics Made Aesthetics, Tam á s Scheibner; Chapter Sixteen When Writers Turn against Themselves: The Soviet Model and the Bulgarian Experience, 1946– 56, Plamen Doinov; Chapter Seventeen Big Brother’s Gravity: East European Literature in the Mirror of Soviet ‘Thick Journals’ in the Late 1940s, Evgeny Ponomarev; Chapter Eighteen The Coming One: Prolegomena to the Positive Hero of Czech Socialist Realism as a Transforming and Transformed Subject Vít Schmarc; Chapter Nineteen Will Freedom Sing as Beautifully as Captives Sang about It? Reshaping the Croatian Canon, 1945– 55, Nenad Ivić; Chapter Twenty The Salon in the Camp: Friendship Societies and the Literary Public Sphere in the SBZ and Early GDR, Natalia Jonsson- Skradol; Conclusion, Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson- Skradol; List of Contributors; Index.

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Communism
• Ideology
• Literary criticism
• European
• Communisme

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 15 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783086993
• Langue: English

Extrait

Socialist Realism in Central and Eastern European Literatures
ANTHEM SERIES ON RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN STUDIES
The Anthem Series on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies publishes original research on the economy, politics, sociology, anthropology and history of the region. The series aims to promote critical scholarship in the field, and has built a reputation for uncompromising editorial and production standards. The breadth of the series reflects our commitment to promoting original scholarship on Russian and East European studies to a global audience.
Series Editor
Balázs Apor – Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Editorial Board
Bradley F. Abrams – President, Czechoslovak Studies Association, USA
Jan C. Behrends – Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, Germany
Dennis Deletant – Georgetown University, USA
Tomasz Kamusella – University of St Andrews, UK
Walter G. Moss – Eastern Michigan University, USA
Marshall T. Poe – University of Iowa, USA
Arfon Rees – University of Birmingham, UK
Maria Todorova – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Socialist Realism in Central and Eastern European Literatures
Institutions, Dynamics, Discourses
Edited by
Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson-Skradol
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2018
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

© 2018 Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson-Skradol editorial matter and selection; individual chapters © individual contributors

The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dobrenko, E. A. (Evgeny Aleksandrovich), editor. | Jonsson-Skradol, Natalia.
Title: Socialist realism in Central and Eastern European literatures: institutions, dynamics, discourses / edited by Evgeny Dobrenko, Natalia Jonsson-Skradol.
Description: London; New York, NY: Anthem Press, 2018. | Series: Anthem series on Russian, East European and Eurasian studies; 1 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017058324 | ISBN 9781783086979 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Europe, Eastern – Intellectual life. | Europe, Eastern – Cultural policy. | Socialist realism in literature. | European literature – History and criticism. | East European literature – History and criticism. | Europe, Eastern – Politics and government – 1945– | BISAC: HISTORY / Europe / Eastern. | LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Eastern (see also Russian & Former Soviet Union). | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism & Socialism.
Classification: LCC DJK50. S635 2018 | DDC 809/.894709045–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017058324

ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-697-9 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-697-1 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson-Skradol
Part 1. INSTITUTIONS
Chapter One
How Socialist Realism Was Exported to Eastern European Countries and How They Got Rid of It
Hans Günther
Chapter Two
Literary Monopolists and the Forging of the Post–World War II People’s Republic of Letters
Rossen Djagalov
Chapter Three
Once Dr Faul Has Left: The Agony of Socialist Realism in Poland, 1955–56
Evgeny Dobrenko
Chapter Four
From Literature Censored by Poets to Literature Censored by the Party: Censorship in the Czech Literary Culture of 1945–55
Pavel Janáček
Chapter Five
The Demise of ‘Socialist Realism for Export’ in 1947: VOKS Receives John Steinbeck and Robert Capa
Vladislav M. Zubok
Chapter Six
The Soviet Factor and the Institutionalization of Bulgarian Literature after World War II
Tatiana V. Volokitina
Chapter Seven
Cultural Renewal in Eastern Germany – Mission Impossible for Soviet Cultural Officers and German Anti-Fascists?
Anne Hartmann
Part 2. DYNAMICS
Chapter Eight
Socialist Writers and Intellectuals in a Divided Nation: The Early GDR Experience
Helen Fehervary
Chapter Nine
Stalinism’s Imperial Figure: Hero or Clerk of the Pax Sovietica ?
Benjamin Robinson
Chapter Ten
From Avant-Garde to Socialist Realism: Continuities and Discontinuities in Hungarian and Romanian Literature
Imre József Balázs
Chapter Eleven
The Short Life of Socialist Realism in Croatian Literature, 1945–55
Ivana Peruško
Chapter Twelve
Literature in Socialist Yugoslavia: Constructing Collective Memory, Institutionalizing the Cultural Field
David Norris
Chapter Thirteen
‘Yesterday and Tomorrow’: The Forms of the Slovak Literature of Socialist Realism, 1945–56
René Bílik
Chapter Fourteen
Socialist or Realist: The Poetics of Politics in Sovietized Hungary
Melinda Kalmár
Part 3. DISCOURSES
Chapter Fifteen
Introducing Socialist Realism in Hungary, 1945–51: How Politics Made Aesthetics
Tamás Scheibner
Chapter Sixteen
When Writers Turn against Themselves: The Soviet Model and the Bulgarian Experience, 1946–56
Plamen Doinov
Chapter Seventeen
Big Brother’s Gravity: East European Literature in the Mirror of Soviet ‘Thick Journals’ in the Late 1940s
Evgeny Ponomarev
Chapter Eighteen
The Coming One: Prolegomena to the Positive Hero of Czech Socialist Realism as a Transforming and Transformed Subject
Vít Schmarc
Chapter Nineteen
Will Freedom Sing as Beautifully as Captives Sang about It? Reshaping the Croatian Canon, 1945–55
Nenad Ivić
Chapter Twenty
The Salon in the Camp: Friendship Societies and the Literary Public Sphere in the SBZ and Early GDR
Natalia Jonsson-Skradol
Conclusion
Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson-Skradol
List of Contributors

Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our thanks go to the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom, which funded the research project Literary Pax Sovietica: National Revival and Cultural Unification in Post-War Eastern Europe, conducted by Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson-Skradol at the University of Sheffield in 2013–17. Under the auspices of this research grant both the original conferences and the edited volume were planned. Additional financial support from the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the International Visegrad Fund, the Centre for East European Language Based Area Studies, the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund and the University of Sheffield made it possible to organize two international conferences at the University of Sheffield, which provided the initial inspiration for the present volume and where earlier versions of most of the texts collected here were presented. The first conference, Socialist Realism in Eastern and Central European Literatures: Origins, Institutions, Discourses (2013), was followed by Literary Pax Sovietica: Late Stalinism and East European Literatures (2014). Without the assistance from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Charles University in Prague, Casimir the Great University in Bydgoszcz (Poland), the University of Trnava (Slovakia), the Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of World Literature at the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Czech Literature at the Czech Academy of Sciences, the conferences would not have been such a success. Our heartfelt thanks go to Tamás Scheibner of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, whose contribution to the conferences from which this volume emerged was indispensable and whose continuous dedication to the project, professionalism and tact are greatly appreciated. We want to express our special thanks to Jesse Savage and to Stuart Murray of Anthem Press for skilful editing and invaluable help with various aspects of this volume’s completion.
INTRODUCTION
Evgeny Dobrenko and Natalia Jonsson-Skradol
Soviet cultural policy in Eastern Europe after World War II has been the topic of many articles, monographs and dissertations since the initial post-war years. The growth or decline of interest in the subject has often been determined by the political and social context of a specific moment, with the research focus shifting accordingly. The novelty of the theme and the extent of transformations in the European political and cultural sphere spurred the earliest studies, in which researchers focused on ‘the scope and scale of oppression and uniformity behind the “Iron Curtain,” as did later scholars working on the immedia