Abhandlungen zur Kunst-, Musik- und Literaturwissenschaft, No. 163. Bonn: Bouvier, 1975

Lauckner, Nancy A

English

Kansas State University

GDR Bulletin Volume 1 Issue 3 September Article 8 1975 Theodor Langenbruch: Dialectical Humor in Kant's Novel "Die Aula" Nancy A. Lauckner University of Tennessee-Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/gdr This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Lauckner, Nancy A. (1975) "Theodor Langenbruch: Dialectical Humor in Kant's Novel "Die Aula"," GDR Bulletin: Vol. 1: Iss. 3. https://doi.org/10.4148/gdrb.v1i3.309 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in GDR Bulletin by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact cads@k-state.edu. -8-Margy Gerber, "Confrontations with Reality i n Hermann Kant's Die Aula", Honatshefte 6? (Summer 1975) No. 2, pp. 173-184. *************** DIMENSION The VI / 3 issue of DIMENSION includes the f i r s t published English t r a n s l a t i o n of Peter Hacks Onrphale, translated by Andre Lefevere. The special 1973 issue of DIMENSION devoted e n t i r e l y to GDR l i t e r a t u r e i s s t i l l a v a i l -able for $5 from the Department of Ger-manic Languages, University of Texas at Austin, Texas 78712. Under the guest e d i -torship of Gunter Kunert, the volume contains recent writings of 23 authors i n the German o r i g i n a l and i n English t r a n s l a t i o n . *************** FILMS Twenty GDR films w i l l be shown during Janu-ary, 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art i n New York. Subsequently, during February and March, 1976, they w i l l be shown at the P a c i f i c Film Archive, University of C a l i f o r -n i a at Berkeley. After March they w i l l be available for general r e n t a l i n the U. S. through Audi-Brandon, with o f f i c e s i n I l l i -n ois, C a l i f o r n i a and New York. More de-t a i l s are being sought for a future B u l l e t i n . ************** BOOK REVIEWS Marlies Menge, Tips fur Reisen i n die DDR, Von Rostock nach Klingenthal, (West B e r l i n : Gebr. Holzapfel, 1974), 192 S. + Ubersichtskarte. The German teacher i n general, and the teacher of German area studies or GDR l i t e r a -ture i n p a r t i c u l a r , should f i n d t h i s paper-back useful and informative. I t i s essen-t i a l l y t o u r i s t i c public r e l a t i o n s written by a West German j o u r n a l i s t (Die Zeit) f o r West German readers, but i t provides a tid y overview of how and when to t r a v e l i n the GDR. Menge assumes biases and preconcep-tions i n her readers; she i s herself not neutral, but at least candid and sincere i n her attempt not to l e t her bias cloud her v i s i o n . The book has four parts: part one, "Reisen Sie doch mal!" consists of ten short a r t i c l e s which are reprinted from Die Zeit t r a v e l sec-t i o n , l a rgely h i s t o r i c a l - c u l t u r a l information i n anecdotal s t y l e . Part two, "Die Deutsche Demokratische Republik und ihre 15 Bezirke," treats the administrative d i s t r i c t s i n Baedeker fashion, including useful addresses and s i g h t -seeing a t t r a c t i o n s , along with geographic and demographic data for each d i s t r i c t . Part three, "Fur jeden gibt es Mb'glichkeiten, i n die DDR zu reisen," deals with p r a c t i c a l t r a v e l p a r t i c u l a r s and the various sorts of private, commercial, and package-tour arrangements available at time of publication (1974), including detailed p r i c e s . Part four, "Voraussetzungen, die zu er-f u l l e n sind—Bestimmungen, die man beachten s o l l t e , " i s l i s t of things one may and may not l e g a l l y do, import, and export on a t r i p to the DDR; t h i s i s e s s e n t i a l l y the same information found i n o f f i c i a l West German publications, such as the booklet Reisen i n die DDR, available at a l l larger t r a i n stations and t r a v e l bureaus. At DM 7,80 ($3.25), t h i s modest guide-book i s no great bargain, but i t may have con-siderable value i n expanding the American t o u r i s t ' s view of the GDR beyond the confines of East B e r l i n and day t r i p s across Checkpoint Charlie. Richard Rundell New Mexico State University ************** Langenbruch, Theodor*. -Dia l e c t i c a l Humor i n Kant's Novel "Die Aula". Abhandlungen zur Kunst-, Musik- und Literaturwissenschaft, No. I63. (Bonn: Bouvicr, 1975). This book w i l l be of i n t e r e s t to both scholars and students of GDR l i t e r a t u r e . While i t i s not intended as an exhaustive a n a l y i s i s of Die Aula, t h i s study of d i a l e c t i c a l humor, "the aesthetic conscience of S o c i a l i s t Realism," provides provocative insights into Kant's work and GDR l i t e r a t u r e as a whole. Langenbruch c a r e f u l l y analyzes Kant's use of this technique as the organizing p r i n c i p l e of character, s t y l e , language, and structure i n the novel. The treatment of form and content as inseparable e n t i t i e s f i l l s an important need i n Aula scho-l a r s h i p . The section on l i t e r a r y references i n Die Aula i s especially useful i n i t s i d e n t i f i -cation and analysis of references to ob-scure s o c i a l i s t l i t e r a r y works unfamiliar to many Western readers. Several features make 1Lauckner: Theodor Langenbruch: Dialectical Humor in Kant's Novel "Die Aula"Published by New Prairie Press, 1975-9-the book p a r t i c u l a r l y valuable for anyone be-ginning the study of GDR l i t e r a t u r e : the h i s t o r i c a l information on the GDR l i t e r a r y scene, including the B i t t e r f e l d Movement and S o c i a l i s t Realism, and the pagination concordance of Aula edi t i o n s , which enables one to check references i n any of the three Aula editions. Ferhaps the book's great-est merit i s i t s evenhanded approach to i t s topic; Langenbruch devotes ca r e f u l atten-t i o n to GDR p o l i t i c a l r e a l i t i e s and considers both East and West German interpretations of Die Aula, yet he c l e a r l y r e a l i z e s that he i s analyzing a l i t e r a r y work, not w r i t -ing a p o l i t i c a l polemic. This recognition, so e s s e n t i a l for a study of d i a l e c t i c a l humor, i s sadly lacking i n many publica-tions on GDR l i t e r a t u r e . Probably neither hi s method nor h i s c l a s s i f i c a t i o n of Kant as a proponent of " c r i t i c a l pro-socialism" w i l l s a t i s f y a l l his readers, yet everyone w i l l understand Kant better a f t e r reading t h i s work. Because the book i s i n English, i t w i l l reach a larger audience, an important con-sideration i n view of the p r o l i f e r a t i o n of " l i t e r a t u r e i n t r a n s l a t i o n " courses. Never-theless, the choice of language i s the one main drawback of this otherwise excellent book: frequent Germanisms i n t e r f e r e with the ease of reading which one would expect from the author's clear thinking and l o -g i c a l organization, and readers who know l i t t l e German may not understand h i s mean-ing i n a few places. Certainly the author i s not solely responsible f o r t h i s flaw; a company which publishes i n English should have lec t o r s and editors competent to e l i m i -nate l i n g u i s t i c problems. However, t h i s defect i s largely cosmetic, and the work as a whole i s a s i g n i f i c a n t scholarly achieve-ment which represents a major contribution to the growing corpus of GDR l i t e r a r y r e -search. Nancy A. Lauckner University of Tennessee-Knoxville ************ RESEARCH IN PROGRESS David Bathrick, "Agriprop: C o l l e c t i v i s a t i o n and the Drama i n the GDR" (paper for 1975 Wis-consin Workshop at University of Wisconsin-Madi-son), Department of German, Van Hise H a l l , University of Wisconsin, Madison, W i s e , 53706. Carl C o l d i t z , "The Works of Volker Braun", De-partment of German, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich., 48202. John A. Erikson, "Funktionswandel der Erzahl-technik einiger ausgewahlter DDR-Romane" (Uni-v e r s i t y of Minnesota d i s s e r t a t i o n ) , Franzis-kus Kollege, 2 Hamburg 13, Sedanstr. 24, Spt. 23-Valerie Greenberg, "Younger Women Writers i n the GDR" (Dissertation), Department of Ger-manic Languages and L i t e r a t u r e , Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27706. P a t r i c i a Herminghouse, "Die Frau und die Fhan-tasie i n der neueren DDR-Pro??", Department of Germanic Languages and L i t e r a t u r e s , Washing-ton University, St. Louis, Mo. 63130. L i s a Kahn, "Orpheus im Osten" (paper for 1975 SCMLA dealing with s i x Orpheus poems of Gunter Kunert as being i n the "western" l i t e r a r y t r a d i t i o n ) , Department of Foreign Languages and L i t e r a t u r e s , Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas, 77004. B a s i l Mogridge, "Johannes Bobrowski: Pinnau und andere" (paper for F i f t h Congress of the IVG), Department of German, Carleton University, Ottowa, Canada. Gerhild G. Stiewe, "Die Rolle der Frau i n der DDR L i t e r a t u r " (University of Minnesota dis s e r -tation) , Department of German, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. 55455* 2GDR Bulletin, Vol. 1 [1975], Iss. 3, Art. 8https://newprairiepress.org/gdr/vol1/iss3/8DOI: 10.4148/gdrb.v1i3.309

Theodor Langenbruch: Dialectical Humor in Kant\u27s Novel  Die Aula

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Theodor Langenbruch: Dialectical Humor in Kant\u27s Novel Die Aula

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