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trafo verlag, Berlin 1999, [= Gesellschaft, Geschichte, Gegenwart, Bd. 19], 256 S., ISBN 3-89626-197-5, 29,80 EUR
Amerikanistik in der DDR? Selbst bei Leuten aus dem akademischen Metier aus westlichen Ländern trifft dieses Thema mitunter auf ungläubiges Kopfschütteln: Das gab‘s doch gar nicht! Das konnte und durfte es doch gar nicht geben in einem Staat, der so auf die Sowjetunion fixiert war wie die DDR.
Dieser Sammelband versucht, einen Beitrag zur Information, gegen ahnungslose oder böswillige Klischees oder gegen Ignoranz zu leisten.
Er versucht, etwas von dem zu bieten, was Jürgen Kocka vom Umgang mit der DDR-Geschichte erwartet: die Balance von Infragestellung und Selbstbehauptung, die Pflicht der damals Agierenden zur hermeneutischen Rekonstuktion, die historisch-empirische Bestandsaufnahme.
All dies wird dadurch unternommen, daß die Autoren eine kritische Analyse der Dokumente vornehmen, die der Anglistik-Amerikanistik-Ausbildung in der DDR zugrunde lagen. Ebenso wird ein kritischer Blick auf die verschrifteten Forschungsergebnisse geworfen.
Vor allem aber - und darin liegt das Besondere des Bandes - stellen die Autorinnen und Autoren aus der Insider-Position die Evolution des Faches dar, das zwar nicht zu den wichtigsten im Gefüge der DDR-Gesellschaftswissenschaften und Philologien gehörte, sich doch aber einer besonderen Aufmerksamkeit erfreute. Diese Aufmerksamkeit kam von "oben" und von "unten". Sie bewirkte, daß sich die DDR-Amerikanistik in einem Regelkreis bewegte und bewegen mußte: Da waren die politischen und ideologischen Parameter des Systems, da war der eigene Anspruch auf adäquate Repräsentation der USA in Forschung und Lehre, und da waren die Erwartungen eines großenteils USA-interessierten Publikums.
Der Aufgabe der Rekonstruktion dieses Regelkreises stellen sich die Autorinnen und Autoren auf unterschiedliche Art, die von harter Retro- und Introspektion bis hin zur trotzigen Verteidigung damaliger Haltungen und Leistungen reicht.
Die Autorinnen und Autoren wissen, wovon sie reden: Die meisten waren zu DDR-Zeiten in markanten Positionen tätig.
Das Ergebnis ihrer Bemühungen sind Mosaiksteine zu einem noch zu schaffenden Gesamtbild einer Disziplin, deren Existenzbedingungen sich von den 50er bis zu den 80er Jahren durch die Veränderungen der politischen Großwetterlage merklich wandelten.
In der Darstellung von Zeitzeugenschaft und in der zeitgeschichtlichen Kontextualisierung, die über die Wende und die Wiedervereinigung hinausgeführt werden, liegt das Interessante dieses Bandes.
Vorwort 9
Rainer Schnoor
Ten Years After – Veränderungen in den ostdeutschen
Amerikanistik-Landschaften seit 1989 13
Rainer Schnoor
Amerikanistik in 40 Jahren DDR: Eine wissenschaftshistorische Skizze 29
Rainer Schnoor
Amerikanistik an den Hochschulen und Schulen der DDR zwischen
zentralistischer Steuerung und Emanzipation 51
Gudrun Bahls/ Wolfgang Wicht
Die Amerikanistik an der Universität Leipzig (1950–1990) – 40 Jahre
Gratwanderungen eines ungeliebten Faches 67
Eberhard Brüning
Zur Erforschung der USA-Historiographie nach dem II. Weltkrieg
in der DDR 87Forschungen zur Außenpolitik der USA – Zwischen ideologischen Zwängen und
der Wahrnehmung von Realitäten 101
Claus Montag
Die Native American Studies und ihre Rezeption in der DDR 123
Ulrich van der Heyden
USA-Populärkultur in der DDR: Bewertung und Interpretation
in den Medien und in der Amerikanistik 153Westöstliche engagements: Eine bi(bli)ographische Reminiszenz 173
Robert Weimann
Über den Umgang mit dem Diskurs von Poststrukturalismus und Postmoderne in
der DDR 189
Utz Riese
Wie ich "Amerika" in Greifswald und anderswo studierte:
Erinnerungen an die 1980er Jahre 211Vor und nach drei Semestern am Colby College: Forschungsmöglichkeiten in der
USA-Landeskunde und die Rezeption ihrer Ergebnisse in der DDR 221
Elfi Schneidenbach
Das Flaggschiff: USA-Redakteur beim "Neuen Deutschland" 229
Klaus Steiniger
Amerikanistik in Potsdam: Eine Chronologie von Erinnerungen 237
Heinz Wüstenhagen
Summaries 243
Personenregister 249
Ten years after
Rainer Schnoor, editor of this volume, formerly senior
lecturer in American Studies at Potsdam College of Education, now senior
lecturer at Potsdam University, describes the post-1989 developments in East
German American Studies. He distinguishes between the 1989/1990 interregnum and
the subsequent gradual substitution of the East German by the West German
academic system. He draws a map of the contact zones of incoming West
German and the remaining incumbent East German faculty.
40 Years of American Studies in the GDR…
In this essay in the history of science the author attempts a sketch of the
evolution of American Studies in the GDR. By incorporating political and
cultural history as well as the history of ideas and personal recollection, he
draws a picture of the expanding scope and opportunities of the field, its
achievements and deficits.
Education and Educationudies in the GDR…
Gudrun Bahls, formerly coordinator for English and American Studies at the
GDR Ministry of Education, now teacher of English at Brandenburg College, and
Wolfgang Wicht, also coordinator at the Ministry of Education until 1976, then
Professor of English Literature at Potsdam College of Education, now in
retirement, analyze the administrative, formal framework for English and
American Studies from the ministry‘s perspective.
They show that the discipline was, on the one hand, centrally directed by the
state but, on the other hand, was relatively free to shape a profile of its own.
From firsthand experience they trace the stages of curricular development and
changes in GDR literary theory.
American Studies at Leipzig University…
Eberhard Brüning, one of the nestors of American Studies in East Germany,
formerly Chair of English and American Studies at Karl-Marx-University in
Leipzig and Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, now professor emeritus, writes
the history of his department from 1950-1990, describes the survival strategies
in his field in an unfriendly environment in the 1950s and 1960s as well as the
new opportunities offered in the 1970s and 1980s, the era of détente and
diplomatic recognition of the GDR by the USA.
Postwar US Historiography Research in the GDR…
Alfred Loesdau, formerly professor at the Academy of Social Sciences at the
Central Committee of the Socialist Unity (Communist) Party in Berlin, now
in retirement, analyzes his department‘s research, an ideological critique of
"bourgeois" historiography in general and US postwar history writing
in particular. In self-critical introspection he shows how politically oriented
approaches limit and stifle research and lead to simplified conclusions.
US Foreign Policy Research in the GDR…
Claus Montag, historian and former Chair of US Foreign Policy Studies at the
Institute of International Relations in Potsdam-Babelsberg ; now, in retirement,
editor and coordinator of various academic projects, reviews the close
determination of science by the demands of politics and the negative
consequences of this relationship for research.
As a former diplomat he shows how foreign policy was shaped by ideological
constructs with a minimum of political science support.
Native American Studies in the GDR...
Ulrich van der Heyden, formerly researcher at the Academy of Sciences, now
at Berlin’s Humboldt University, has been one of the few Native American
Studies Experts in the GDR.
In his carefully documented paper he analyzes the sources and components of the
"noble savage" image of American Indians in the GDR. He describes the
East German history of and the enormous public interest in the field and the
ways to satisfy this interest.
US Popular Culture in GDR American Studies and Media…
Thomas Fuchs, who earned his Ph. D. from the University of
Oregon and presently teaches American Studies at Magdeburg, surveys a field of
great public and little academic importance in the GDR: US popular culture.
Enthusiastically received by the younger generation and attacked by officials in
state, education, and culture, US popular culture, especially rock music, was
never a field of cultural analysis in GDR American Studies.
West-East Bi(bli)ographical Recollection…
Robert Weimann, formerly professor at Potsdam and at Humboldt University,
Director of Research in English and American Literature at the GDR Academy of
Sciences, long-term President of the German Shakespeare Society (Weimar) ; now,
as an emeritus, Professor of Drama at the University of California, Irvine,
presents his personal recollection of his transatlantic engagements.
These engagements had a twofold purpose: to contribute to the development of
advanced, nondogmatic Marxist literary theory in East and West and to
appropriate Western literary theory in the GDR. In stylistic elegance this bio-
bibliographical sketch gives evidence of Weimann‘s position as a mediator
between two worlds.
Poststructuralism and Postmodernism in GDR Literary Theory…
Utz Riese, originally teacher of English, then researcher at the Academy of
Science‘s English and American Literature Research Group ; now at the Berlin
Center for Literary Studies, discusses the extraordinary character of the
Weimann research group and its attempt to appropriate poststructuralism and
postmodernism for GDR literary studies.
He analyzes the efforts to overcome the limited concept of literature and
realism by the concepts of representation and appropriation. He shows the
frictions between the relatively homogeneous, rational, teleological Marxist
theory and the heterogeneous postmodernist constructs.
"America" in Greifswald in the 1980s…
Anette Brauer, in the 1980s student of English and Russian at Greifswald
University, one of the few GDR exchange students in the USA, now on the faculty
of Greifswald‘s English and American Department, relates her individual
impressions of being a student of English in the GDR of the 1980s. She recalls
the ideological penetration of the studies leading to overflow effects and
political disinteredness amongst students.
She describes her cultural shock after her return from her study trip in
1988.
American Studies after Three Semesters at Colby College...
Elfi Schneidenbach, who studied English and Russian at Leipzig, received her
doctorate at Jena University, worked in the Ministry of Higher Education and the
Academy of Sciences.
After the Academy was dissolved in 1991/92, she has been working as a free-lance
language instructor and translator.
In her paper she surveys the development of GDR-USA academic exchange in the
1970s and 1980s and describes the thorny path of selecting,
"processing" and preparing candidates for study trips to the USA. She
uses her own experience as a case study.
Covering the USA for the Communist Party Daily "Neues
Deutschland"…
Klaus Steiniger, who studied law at Berlin‘s Humboldt University, first
worked as an attorney and mayor, then in the GDR Foreign Ministy, became the
leading expert on the USA in the "Neues Deutschland". Today in
retirement, he works as a free-lance journalist and author.
In his paper he draws a vivid picture of the Cold War frictions he encountered
in his journalistic work, the complicated process preceding the diplomatic
recognition of the GDR by the USA in 1974, and the subsequent opportunistic
attitude of GDR officialdom toward the USA.
American Studies in Potsdam…
Heinz Wüstenhagen, formerly Professor of American Literature at Potsdam
College of Education, is now an emeritus. In this chronology he analyzes the
evolutionary stages in English-American Studies in Potsdam.
He highlights the cultural and academic importance of West Berlin for East
German Americanists before the Wall and ends on a critical note concerning his
field in East Germany after reunification.