NOW I REMEMBER. STEFAN HEYM: FROM “THE INDIFFERENT” TO “COLLIN”
Abstract
This essay analyses two literary works written by Stefan Heym (1913-2001), an Eastern German author of Jewish origins known for his dissident socialist positions. In the story “The Indifferent” and in the novel “Collin” (1979), Heym deals with the uneasy subject of Stalinism in the Eastern Block in the Fifties, with particular reference to the ‘sham trials’ that took place in Hungary and in the GDR. What stands out at the centre of both works is the theme of the removal of memory as a defence mechanism against subjects that are painful to the self. At the same time, the recovery of that memory functions as a legitimation of the role of the intellectual, whose task is to tell the truth.
References
A. Fonti
Heym, S. (2005), Collin [1979], btb, München; trad. it. di Umberto Gandini, S. Heym (1984), Il tradimento del compagno Collin, Torino, Sei.
Heym, S. (1988), Der Gleichgültige, in Gesammelte Erzählungen, btb, München: 287-303; trad. it. di Stefania Saba, Heym, S. (2006), L’indifferente, in L’infermiera Margot e altri racconti, Cava de’ Tirreni (SA), Marlin: 287-303.
Heym, S. (1988), Nachruf, Bertelsmann, München.
Heym, S. (1980), Wege und Umwege, Bertelsmann, München: 378-380.
Heym, S. (1999), Im Gespräch mit Dirk Sager. Zeugen des Jahrhunderts, Ullstein, Berlin.
B. Letteratura critica
Borgwardt, A. (2002), Im Umgang mit der Macht. Herrschaf und Selbstbehauptung in einem autoritären politischen System, Westdeutscher VerlagWiesbaden: 233-266
Emmerich, W. (2007), Kleine Literaturgeschichte der DDR, Aufbau, Berlin.Entrata bibliografica.
Graves, P. (1987), Authority, The State and the Individual: Stefan Heym’s Novel ‘Collin’, in “Forum for Modern Language Studies, 23 (4): 341-350.
Hutchinson, P. (1999), Stefan Heym – Dissident auf Lebenszeit, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzbug: 158-171.
Hutchinson, P., Zachau, R. (2003, a cura di), Stefan Heym: Socialist – Dissidenter – Jew, Peter Lang, Bern.
Jäger, M. (1994), Kutur und Politik in der DDR 1945-1990, Edition Deutschland Archiv, Leipzig.
Judt, T. (2005), Postwar. La nostra storia 1945-2005, trad. it. di Aldo Piccato, Bari-Roma, Laterza.
Mählert, U. (2009), La DDR. Una storia breve 1949-1989, a cura di A. Gilardoni e Karin Birge Gilardoni-Büch, trad. it. di A. Gilardoni, Mimesis, Milano.
Sisto, M. (2009, a cura di), L’invenzione del futuro. Breve storia letteraria della DDR, Scheiwiller, Milano.
RiCognizioni is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.
It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author or journal board.
