Please join us for the roundtable The GDR in Slavic and East European Studies: East Germany as a Point of Contact during the Cold War at the upcoming AATSEEL Conference at Harrah’s on the Las Vegas Strip.

In Slavic Studies, when scholars talk about cultural exchanges during the Cold War more often than not their attention is drawn to the relationships between the Soviet Union and the Global South; and slightly less often – to the relationships between Eastern Europe and the Global South. However, despite being literally situated between East and West, the German Democratic Republic is rarely mentioned in this regard. Thus, the culture of East Germany is a rather understudied subject in the field of Slavic and East European Studies. This roundtable aspires to bridge this gap by examining cultural exchanges between the GDR and other countries in the socialist and capitalist worlds. What was the dynamic between the East and West German book markets and what role did Soviet literature play in this dynamic? To what extent did the publishing of children’s literature in the USSR impact the publishing industry in the GDR and vice versa? How successful were Soviet-East German academic exchange programs in the field of literature? How did transnational relationships between East Germany, the Soviet Union, and Mexico shape the position of activist-artists between the state socialist and liberal capitalist worlds in the era of the Cold War? To what degree did the project of East German film coproductions with socialist countries create solidarity and/or economic benefits? This roundtable will try to answer these questions as well as addressing the more general question of the role of East German topics in Slavic and East European studies.

Participants:

Hope to see you there!