Literary “Projects” in German Culture in the Second Half of the 20th Century

• Main Author: Dmitry Alexandrovich Chugunov
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Ural Federal University Press 2018-10-01
• Series: Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки
• Subjects: Б. Леберт; «Биттерфельдский путь»; Г. Грасс; «Группа 47»; литературные проекты Германии; «Любекские литературные встречи»; Ю. Герман.
• Online Access: https://journals.urfu.ru/index.php/Izvestia2/article/view/3432

This article studies the tendency behind the emergence of various “literary projects” in Germany’s culture after 1945. The history of literature is traditionally described with its designation of the writers’ communities, united by their artistic interests and perceived as symbols of the era (Gruppe 47, Gruppe 61, Cologne School of New Realism, etc.). However, in the second half of the 20th century, due to changes in the paradigm of values in the public’s consciousness and changes in the publishing policy, not literary groups but “projects” come to the fore. For example, the Bitterfeld Path (Bitterfelder Weg) was an impressive experiment in the literature of the GDR. The idea of an orderly influence on the literary process was successfully adopted in West Germany. This process becomes particularly noticeable at the turn of the 20th century. Thus, after the unification of Germany, books depicting the new world and the life of the younger generation come to be of great demand. For this reason, publishers actively seek and introduce all the new young authors (J. Hermann, B. Lebert, etc.). For many of these authors, being involved in the framework of “literary projects” creates an internal conflict between their own creative aspirations and the demands of the book market. Among the numerous “literary projects”, a special phenomenon is Tristesse Royale (1999), a pop culture quintet, and Gruppe 05 (Lübecker Literaturtreffen) established by G. Grass in 2005, both combining features of a literary group and a literary “project”.