Ulrich Plenzdorf’s kein runter kein fern: Disability, Masculinity, and Literary Social Criticism in the Period 1976–1991

IF 0.1 3区 文学 0 LITERATURE, GERMAN, DUTCH, SCANDINAVIAN OXFORD GERMAN STUDIES Pub Date : 2022-04-03 DOI:10.1080/00787191.2022.2095806
Sebastian Balling
{"title":"Ulrich Plenzdorf’s kein runter kein fern: Disability, Masculinity, and Literary Social Criticism in the Period 1976–1991","authors":"Sebastian Balling","doi":"10.1080/00787191.2022.2095806","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I analyse Ulrich Plenzdorf’s novel kein runter kein fern, an often-overlooked text critiquing the society of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the late 1970s that focuses primarily on the theme of disability. Plenzdorf’s protagonist, a boy with a mild learning disability, is pressured to develop a masculine body to overcome his mental handicap. Analysing the story from a perspective based on Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies and Julia Hell’s Post-Fascist Fantasies, I argue that Plenzdorf is showing the GDR as a militarized, masculine society, unable to deal with disability in a humane manner. His protagonist therefore has no other choice but to cope with his disability by becoming what he calls a ‘panzermann’, that means a man whose feelings are cut off with a tank-like body. Furthermore, by drawing on a rich collection of archival materials, I show how Plenzdorf’s depiction of disability, masculinity, and GDR society caused a major literary scandal, and how he radicalized these topics in later adaptations. Reviewing this material that has not been published before, I argue that Plenzdorf widened his criticism during the Wende years and transformed his criticism of the GDR society to a criticism of the German society as a whole.","PeriodicalId":53844,"journal":{"name":"OXFORD GERMAN STUDIES","volume":"51 1","pages":"186 - 206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"OXFORD GERMAN STUDIES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00787191.2022.2095806","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, GERMAN, DUTCH, SCANDINAVIAN","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

In this article, I analyse Ulrich Plenzdorf’s novel kein runter kein fern, an often-overlooked text critiquing the society of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the late 1970s that focuses primarily on the theme of disability. Plenzdorf’s protagonist, a boy with a mild learning disability, is pressured to develop a masculine body to overcome his mental handicap. Analysing the story from a perspective based on Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies and Julia Hell’s Post-Fascist Fantasies, I argue that Plenzdorf is showing the GDR as a militarized, masculine society, unable to deal with disability in a humane manner. His protagonist therefore has no other choice but to cope with his disability by becoming what he calls a ‘panzermann’, that means a man whose feelings are cut off with a tank-like body. Furthermore, by drawing on a rich collection of archival materials, I show how Plenzdorf’s depiction of disability, masculinity, and GDR society caused a major literary scandal, and how he radicalized these topics in later adaptations. Reviewing this material that has not been published before, I argue that Plenzdorf widened his criticism during the Wende years and transformed his criticism of the GDR society to a criticism of the German society as a whole.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
乌尔里希·普伦茨多夫的《残疾、男子气概与1976-1991年的文学社会批评》
在本文中,我分析了乌尔里希·普伦茨多夫(Ulrich Plenzdorf)的小说《kein runter kein fern》,这是一部经常被忽视的作品,批评了20世纪70年代末德意志民主共和国(GDR)的社会,主要关注残疾人的主题。普伦兹多夫的主人公是一个有轻微学习障碍的男孩,为了克服自己的智力障碍,他被迫发展出男性化的身体。我从克劳斯·特威利特的《男性幻想》和朱莉娅·海尔的《后法西斯幻想》的视角来分析这个故事,认为普伦茨多夫把德意志民主共和国描绘成一个军事化的、男性化的社会,无法以人道的方式处理残疾人问题。因此,他的主人公别无选择,只能通过成为他所谓的“panzermann”来应对他的残疾,这意味着一个人的感情被坦克一样的身体切断了。此外,通过收集丰富的档案材料,我展示了普伦茨多夫对残疾、男子气概和德意志民主共和国社会的描述如何引发了一场重大的文学丑闻,以及他如何在后来的改编中激进化了这些话题。回顾这些以前没有发表过的材料,我认为普伦茨多夫在文德时期扩大了他的批评,并将他对德意志民主共和国社会的批评转变为对整个德国社会的批评。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
OXFORD GERMAN STUDIES
OXFORD GERMAN STUDIES LITERATURE, GERMAN, DUTCH, SCANDINAVIAN-
CiteScore
0.10
自引率
50.00%
发文量
2
期刊介绍: Oxford German Studies is a fully refereed journal, and publishes in English and German, aiming to present contributions from all countries and to represent as wide a range of topics and approaches throughout German studies as can be achieved. The thematic coverage of the journal continues to be based on an inclusive conception of German studies, centred on the study of German literature from the Middle Ages to the present, but extending a warm welcome to interdisciplinary and comparative topics, and to contributions from neighbouring areas such as language study and linguistics, history, philosophy, sociology, music, and art history. The editors are literary scholars, but seek advice from specialists in other areas as appropriate.
期刊最新文献
Fluchtpunkt Florenz – Deutsch-Florentiner in Risorgimento und Gründerzeit Thinking Like a Rat: Grotesque Interspecies Relations, Narrative Hospitality And Posthuman Assemblages in Katherina Hacker’s Die Gäste The Internet is Relational: Networked Connectivity and the ‘Sovereign Individual’ in Videos by Brenda Lien Unrecognizable Subjects, Grief, and Repair in Esther Dischereit’s Blumen Für Otello (2014) Assembly and its Other in German Romantic Literature and Thought: The Inexhaustible Gathering
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1