Zur literarischen Kommunikation in der Tschechoslowakei zwischen 1968 und 1989 am Beispiel der Rezeption von Werken Siegfried Lenz’
| Title in English | On literary communication in Czechoslovakia between 1968 and 1989 using the example of the reception of works by Siegfried Lenz |
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | "Heinrich Böll, who had witnessed the invasion of Prague in 1968 and expressed his opinion on it, was therefore made a banned author, so we switched to Siegfried Lenz" - this is how Božena Koseková, one of the most important editors and translators during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, explained the conditions in the literary world at the time in 2012, using an example. The "change" mentioned is surprising from today's perspective for several reasons. Publishing the texts of West German authors was a risky venture in the so-called Eastern Bloc, and censorship posed an existential threat to many publishers, translators, editors and others. It is therefore astonishing that Heinrich Böll was "swapped" by another West German author. The question arises as to why Lenz was unproblematic for communist censorship, while other West German authors such as Grass or Böll were practically banned. The aim of this presentation is to present the reception of Lenz's texts in Czechoslovakia. The focus is particularly on the turning point of 1968, when Soviet troops invaded the country, which brought a ban on the publication of the texts of many West German writers, but which at the same time surprisingly meant a rise for Siegfried Lenz in what was then Czechoslovakia. An overview of the paratexts, i.e. forewords, afterwords, commentaries, reviews, critiques, expert opinions, etc. on the Czechoslovak editions of his texts is presented and on the basis of this analysis it is to be shown: a) how these texts were received in the Czechoslovak literary environment between 1968 and 1989 and which development trends can be identified; b) what role did paratexts play in this reception and what strategies were chosen by their authors (translators or literary critics) to achieve the publication of these texts, often despite the obstacles of socialist censorship. |
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