Stefan Heym: A 20th Century German Life

斯特凡·海姆：20 世纪德国人的生活

• 批准号: AH/T012498/1
• 负责人: Cathy Gelbin
• 金额: $ 25.58万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT012498%2F1
• 关键词: Stefan; Heym; 20th; Century; German

The proposed study will present the first comprehensive intellectual biography of the East German Jewish writer Stefan Heym (1913-2001), who became East Germany's most prominent dissident. Heym, whose life spanned all five political systems that ruled twentieth-century Germany - from the German Empire the unified Republic after 1989 - was among the most prolific and widely read postwar German authors on both sides of the Iron Curtain. He combined - like none other in divided Germany - an important literary oeuvre with political engagement, and thus came to be seen as a symbol of outstanding moral and political integrity.Following on from my AHRC-funded monograph Cosmopolitanisms and the Jews (2017), where I began to explore Heym's oeuvre through a cosmopolitanist framework, this project seeks to shed light on the nuanced and complex trajectories of political dissent in its particular Jewish incarnations in the GDR. In doing so, it will intervene in the reductive Cold War reception of East German culture, and East German Jews in particular, as 'perpetrators and victims, villains and useful idiots, bystanders and accessories' (Michael Wolffsohn), which continues to vex the discussion of East German culture and the Eastern Bloc in general. At the same time, a consideration of life writings related to Heym reveals the need to complicate his idealising image as a 'perpetual dissident' (Peter Hutchinson), given that this only partially accounts for Heym's responses to the GDR.Whereas previous studies have largely rested on a discussion and contextualisation of Heym's literary works, this planned intellectual biography and associated publications will be the first work to weave together the largest available range of sources from Germany, the UK, the USA, Israel and the former Czechoslovakia. This will overlay Heym's extensive publications with the vast archive of previously unconsidered or unavailable life writings and biographical sources. These include personal correspondence and the secret police files of various political regimes under which Heym lived, including National Socialist Germany, the United States and the GDR. It will also draw on a wealth of personal photos, letters, manuscripts and 8-mm personal footage depicting Heym, as well as a series of exclusive interviews with surviving friends and associates before the final passing of that generation. These sources will expose the personal motivations, tactical manoeuvrings, personal networks and internal contradictions that made up this towering figure of the East German opposition. By making Heym's life and oeuvre relevant to the post-Wall generation, this project will transcend the still prevailing, dichotomous Cold War portrayals of the East German culture, counter culture and opposition to uncover sites of creativity and personal agency under Communist rule. The study of GDR culture has become largely discredited since the post-1990s revelations that a number of leading dissident GDR writers had themselves worked for the Stasi. At the same time, number of more recent popular culture renditions of life in the GDR, including The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006), Deutschland '83 and '86 (Germany, 2015 and 2018) and Gundermann (Germany, 2018) have sparked renewed popular interest in and nostalgia about the GDR, at the risk of normalising the broad involvement of its citizens with the Stasi. Through the combination of the definitive academic study of Heym's life and an international conference, with impact events including a film series and an international TV documentary, I want to explore the fascinating interplay between politics and personality in the making of political disobedience. I seek to illuminate Heym's dissenting leftist and cosmopolitanist position for a new generation facing the rise of right-wing extremism and populist movements which threaten the humanitarian vision of the European project.

这项拟议中的研究将首次全面介绍东德犹太作家斯特凡·海姆（Stefan Heym，1913-2001）的思想传记，海姆后来成为东德国最著名的持不同政见者。海姆的一生跨越了统治20世纪德国的所有五种政治制度--从德意志帝国到1989年后的统一共和国--他是铁幕两边最多产、最广泛阅读的战后德国作家之一。在分裂的德国，他将一部重要的文学作品与政治活动结合在一起，因此被视为杰出的道德和政治诚信的象征。继我的AHRC资助的专著《世界主义与犹太人》（2017）之后，我开始通过世界主义框架探索海姆的作品，这个项目旨在揭示民主德国特定犹太化身中政治异议的微妙和复杂的轨迹。在这样做的过程中，它将干预东德文化，特别是东德犹太人的还原性冷战接受，作为“肇事者和受害者，恶棍和有用的白痴，旁观者和配件”（迈克尔·沃尔夫森），这继续困扰着东德文化和整个东方集团的讨论。与此同时，考虑到与海姆有关的生活著作，我们有必要把他理想化的形象复杂化，成为一个“永久的持不同政见者”（彼得哈钦森），鉴于这只是部分解释了海姆的反应，以民主德国。而以前的研究主要是停留在讨论和语境海姆的文学作品，这本计划中的知识分子传记和相关出版物将是第一部将来自德国、英国、美国、以色列和前捷克斯洛伐克的最大范围的可用资源编织在一起的作品。这将覆盖海姆的广泛出版物与以前未考虑或不可用的生活著作和传记来源的庞大档案。其中包括个人信件和海姆生活过的各种政治政权的秘密警察档案，包括国家社会主义德国、美国和民主德国。它还将利用大量的个人照片，信件，手稿和8毫米个人镜头描绘Heym，以及在那一代人最后去世之前对幸存的朋友和同事的一系列独家采访。这些消息来源将揭露构成这位东德反对派高层人物的个人动机、战术策略、个人网络和内部矛盾。通过使Heym的生活和作品与后墙一代相关，这个项目将超越仍然流行的，对东德文化，反文化和反对派的二分法的冷战描绘，以揭示共产主义统治下的创造力和个人机构的网站。自从20世纪90年代后，一些主要的东德持不同政见的作家自己为史塔西工作的消息被披露以来，对东德文化的研究在很大程度上变得不可信。与此同时，一些最近的流行文化对民主德国生活的再现，包括《其他人的生活》（德国，2006年）、《德意志83》和《德意志86》（德国，2015年和2018年）以及《冈德曼》（德国，2018年），重新引发了民众对民主德国的兴趣和怀旧，这可能会使其公民与史塔西的广泛参与正常化。通过对海姆一生的权威性学术研究和一次国际会议的结合，以及包括一部电影系列和一部国际电视纪录片在内的影响事件，我想探索政治与人格在政治不服从中的迷人相互作用。我试图阐明海姆的异议左派和世界主义者的立场，为新一代面临的右翼极端主义和民粹主义运动的崛起，威胁到欧洲项目的人道主义愿景。