Publicity of poetry in the GDR. The series Poesiealbum (1967 to 1989/90)

Publicity of poetry in the GDR. The series Poesiealbum (1967 to 1989/90)

Dissertation

Publicity of poetry in the GDR. The series Poesiealbum (1967 to 1989/90)

The Poesiealbum can be considered a phenomenon of the so-called poetry wave, which began with the famous poetry evening initiated by Stephan Hermlin at the Academy of Arts in Berlin (Akademie der Künste) on December 11, 1962. In addition to recitation or performance, poetry’s publicity requires its publication and distribution by publishers and booksellers.

This, in turn, depended on the approval of the Head Office of Publishers and Book Trade (Hauptverwaltung Verlage und Buchhandel) in the Ministry of Culture. The expert opinions written for this purpose establish opportune readings. With those readings, the discourse on what is poetically expressible can be traced and the history of the Poesiealbum can be supplemented with a source genre whose systematic analysis has yet to be conducted.

Synchronous and diachronic comparisons, for example according to the poets’ origin or generation, are intended to differentiate the analysis. The approach is inspired by discourse analysis and combines close and distant reading methods of various sources.