Call for Papers
Northeastern Modern Language Society
Annual Convention, 30 April - 3 May, 2014

Censorship and Subversion in German Literature and Film

This panel takes the 200th anniversary of the end of Napoleonic rule over
Europe as an opportunity to discuss censorship and subversiveness in
literature and film. Napoleon famously censored cultural productions in
France and other countries under his influence, and thus setting the stage
for a longstanding and pervasive trend in the Europe. While the Restauration
in Germany was famous for its literary and political censorship, “Junges
Deutschland” writers dealt with similar issues as writers during the
Wilhelmine Empire. If the Weimar republic gave reason for hope regarding
free speech, such hope was quickly stifled after 1933. And while in West
Germany, artists could arguably film and publish whatever they wished, East
German censorship followed the authoritarian traditions. Nevertheless,
writers have time and again found ways to circumvent censorship by finding
means of expression that appear innocuous but in hindsight have somehow
“slipped through.” Often, writers rely on myth and allegory in order to be
critical in spirit, if not in word. Finally, there are works of art that
appear downright subversive despite all efforts by the responsible
institutions. 

While “German Literature during the Third Reich” was mainly written in
California, and while many East German writers left the GDR because of their
publications or in order to publish, cultural production within Germany did
not just stop in 1933 or 1948. The panel is interested in examining those
who stayed, in evaluating limitations and possibilities of censorship,
discussing subversive strategies, and challenging the common notion that
authentic artistic endeavors are exclusively possible in Western democracies.

This panel seeks papers on German texts and films that developed under
censorship, or any other instance in which government seek to influence
cultural production. How does censorship influence writing/film? How do
certain works ‘slip through’ and can they be called subversive? To what
extent is self-censorship maybe even more damaging than governmental
guidelines? And are there examples of productive or supposedly productive
governmental influence (Bitterfelder Weg)? Is freedom of expression possible
in the current highly subsidized German literary and film scene? Please
submit 300-500 word abstracts by Sept. 30 to Thomas Herold at
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The German Studies Call for Papers List
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