The ›Aktionsgruppe Banat‹ in the Field of Tension between Literature and the Public (1965-1984)

Dissertation

• worked out by Patrick Graur
• Cohort 1 (since 2022)

The Aktionsgruppe Banat in the Field of Tension between Literature and the Public (1965-1984)

This project aims to analyze the conditions under which a literary group emerged in socialist Romania (1), the production and reception of a specific form of Romanian-German literature in the 1960s to 1980s (2), as well as the cultural-historical relevance of the concepts of authorship, identity construction, and the relationship between literature and the public sphere (3) from a literary-sociological and intercultural perspective. Although the Aktionsgruppe Banat only existed for a short period of time (1972–1975) before being disbanded by the Romanian Securitate, authors like Richard Wagner (*1952), Johann Lippet (*1951) and Anton Sterbling (*1953) played an important role in the public sphere negotiating Romanian-German subjects.

This work aims to produce a close reading of the literature produced – primarily in the form of poems and short prose – and establish a connection to its performative practices, intermedial experiments and publicity campaigns. In this way, the project broadens the view of this politically controversial phase in Romania’s German literature after 1945.