one hand direct moralising and cliché-ridden treatment of conflicts are criticised, a
greater degree of literary sophistication demanded. On the other hand narratives with
literary ambitions, such as Erwin Strittmatter’s (1912–1994) village novel Tinko [Tinko]
(1954), were criticised because—as the influential Alex Wedding claimed—they lacked
educative exemplary quality. Thus writers often found it more important to demonstrate
socially relevant decision-situations than to portray contradictory characters with
complex perceptions and reactions.
Gradually, differentiations of this scheme—and eventually the development of
narrative models opposed to it—appeared, as sensibility toward the changing nature of
children’s and youth literature grew, and as new montage-type multiperspective modes
of narration took their place alongside conventional modes. Admittedly no decisive
watershed like that of the other German-speaking countries around 1968 can be
discerned; but between the mid-1960s and mid1970s there was a widespread movement
towards new forms and subjects. These developments are to be seen particularly in the
works of Uwe Kant (b.1936), Joachim Nowotny (b.1933), Gerhard Holtz-Baumert (b.
1927), Alfred Wellm (b.1927) and Wolf Spillner (b.1936).
For a while, the limits of the ‘break out from the world of habit’ noted by GDR literary
scholars in this phase were set by Ulrich Plenzdorf’s (b.1934) Die neuen Leiden des
jungen W [The New Sorrows of Young W.] (1972). Then in the final phase of the GDR a
previously unheard-of social-analytic sharpness was reached in Jurij Koch’s (b.1936)
Augenoperation [Eye Operation] (1988). Children’s authors joined in the general process
of exploring afresh the conflicts inherent in the social milieu, trying in particular to
define more specifically the experience-spaces of their young protagonists. The
previously unquestioned security of the child in the socialist society was replaced by
awareness of discords, even injuries. A good example is the works of Benno Pludra, from
Lütt Matten und die Weiße Muschel [Little Matten and the White Seashell] (1963) through
to Insel der Schwäne [Island of Swans] (1980) and Das Herz des Piraten [The Pirate’s
Heart] (1985).
Further ReadingAlmanach zur Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der DDR (1989) Hamburg: Katholische Akademie.
Brüggemann, T. and Brunken, O. (eds) (1987) Handbuch zur Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Von
Beginn des Buchdrucks bis 1570, Stuttgart: Metzler.
——(1991) Handbuch zur Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Von 1750–1800, Stuttgart: Metzler.
Brüggemann, T. and Ewers, H.-H. (1982) Handbuch zur Kinder- und Jugendliteratur von 1750–
1800, Stuttgart: Metzler.
Dahrendorf, M. (1980) Kinder- und Jugendliteratur im bürgerlichen Zeitalter, Königstein: Scriptor.
Dolle-Weinkauff, B. and Peltsch, S. (1990) ‘Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der DDR’, in Wild, R. (ed.)
Geschichte der deutschen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, Stuttgart: Metzler.
Ebert, G. (1975) Ansichten zur Entwicklung der epischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der DDR von
1945 bis 1970, Berlin: Kinderbuchverlag.
Emmrich, C. (ed.) (1982) Literatur für Kinder und Jugendliche in der DDR, Berlin:
Kinderbuchverlag.
Ewers, H.-H. (ed.) (1980) Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der Aufklärung. Eine Textsammlung,
Stuttgart: Reclam.
738 THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE