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- Title
Who's Afraid of Angela Davis?: An American Icon and the Political Uses of Youth Literature in the GD.
- Authors
Bieber, Ada
- Abstract
In the early 1970s, Angela Davis was an iconic figure in the GDR, nowhere more so than among youth. The press supported solidarity cam-paigns for Davis, mainly organized by the FDJ (Free German Youth). Against the backdrop of Davis's imprisonment in 1970 and her trial in 1971–72, jour nalistic and fictional writing as well as radio plays appeared for a young audience. The article compares the ways in which Davis appears as a po litical figure in literature for youth, and argues that literary portraits were dominantly shaped through the ideological discourse of antifascism and the interest to inveigh against the politics of the USA. By examining texts that were originally addressed towards young audiences or reissued for them, the article gives an account of different generic texts such as Maximilian Scheer's radio play Der Weg nach San Rafael: Für Angela Davis (1971), the youth novel Schwarze Rose aus Alabama (1972) by Werner Lehmann, and the travelogue Unterwegs zu Angela (1973) by the German-Australian writer Walter Kaufmann. Also included are narrations in magazines such as Bum-mi (1973) and Neues Leben (1971; 1973). The article shows that all examples served ideological images that were communicated to youth, while distract-ing from Davis's radical call for freedom of all people.
- Subjects
GERMANY (East); DAVIS, Angela Y. (Angela Yvonne), 1944-; EAST German literature; YOUNG adult literature; YOUTH; ANTI-fascist movements; FREIE Deutsche Jugend
- Publication
Colloquia Germanica, 2017, Vol 50, Issue 1, p55
- ISSN
0010-1338
- Publication type
Article