David Pike - Böcker

A Stanford University Press classic.

German Writers in Soviet Exile, 1933-1945 explores the lives and work of several dozen German Communist writers and cultural functionaries who were given asylum in Stalin's Russia when Hitler came to power in Germany. Based on extensive research in the archives of Moscow, East Berlin, and Budapest, and on interviews with survivors of the German Communist emigration to the USSR, David Pikes' account of the life of political exiles during the Stalin years describes the conditions under which German Communists were compelled to live and their pubic and private feelings toward thier ""second fatherland."" He discusses Soviet immigration policy and the travel restrictions placed on the Germans, takes an inside look at the German Section of the Soviet Writers' Union, and provides the first full account of the arrest of thousands of German Communists during the Stalinist purges. Other chapters center on the exiles' involvement in the Communist International's efforts to mobilize a particular form of pro-Soviet antifascism (and the effect upon it of the Moscow show trials), the Communists' perception of National Socialism, and the quality of their opposition to it. In this context Pike uses the nature of their commitment to Hitler's overthrow to question the motives, attitudes, and and ambitions of men whose outlook had been molded by their Soviet experience when they returned in 1945 to assume proxy control of East Germany.Another important chapter adds significantly to our knowledge of Soviet literary politics under Stalin. Drawing on unpublished material, as well as on the contemporary Soviet daily and periodical press, Pike examines the evolution of Georg Lukacs's literary and cultural-political theories in their relation to Soviet socialist realism. He shows for the first time how the realism debates of 1937 to 1939 between Lukacs, Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, and others were manipulated in Moscow, and he suggests reasons for the downfall of the Lukacs-Lifshits ""Trend"" in Soviet literary criticism.Twenty-five eventful years are drawn together in this study. Because Pike sets his subject matter within a broad political and historical context, his book must be regarded as a meaningful contribution to several disciplines -- Soviet and German history, Communist studies in general, Soviet Russian literary politics, German exile studies, and the prehistory of the German Democratic Republic.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

David Pike traces the evolution of interrelated political and literary theoretical currents in the Soviet Union from the early 1930s to the late 1940s and places the writings of Georg Lukacs and Bertolt Brecht within that context. Lukacs' ideas are examined in order to define the derivative nature of his political stance and to ascertain its influence upon the formation of his aesthetic. Pike then explores the cause of Brecht's clash with German and Soviet Stalinists over their decreed aesthetic principles before dealing with his political outlook and its correspondence with standard Soviet assumptions.The link between the two men lies in their practice of viewing reality through the prism of a rigid political dogma. This persistent inclination led to theorietical rationalizations that were incapable of acknowledging the evolving pattern of Stalinist atrocities or that classified these atrocities as historical necessity, and it likewise distorted each man's view of fascism.An additional dimension to this fascination with an exclusive political dogma is that Brecht's tendency to indulge in the Stalinist mystique was not tempered in the least by his Western European or American experience. In fact, his perceptions of Western democracy only drove him further away from any acceptance or appreciation of traditional democratic values. Lukacs, by contrast, chose Soviet exile. There he had little chance to pursue insights into political or aesthetic theory which were meaningfully independent of the dogmas emerging around him. Ironically, Lukacs drifted so far in the opposite direction that he helped work out doctrinal ideas characteristic of fully developed Stalinism. Pike examines another set of parallels and divergences in the realm of aesthetic theory. Whereas Lukacs literary ideas were never incompatible with the political dogma of Stalinism, the political orthodoxy that Brecht shared with Lukacs contributed to an entirely different aesthetic theory and literary practice, one differing radically from Lukacs' views and from the socialist realism of the Soviet cultural establishment.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Through New Mexico’s Official Scenic Historic Markers we learn about the people, the geological features, and the historical events that have made the Land of Enchantment a place unlike any other. An index to our history, these markers tell an incredible story about our cultures and origins. This revised and expanded edition of Roadside New Mexico provides additional information about these sites and includes approximately one hundred new markers, sixty-five of which document the contribution of women to the history of New Mexico.Now structured alphabetically for easier identification, each essay also offers suggestions of similar Historic Markers to help readers explore each topic further. In addition, Pike includes entries on “Ghost Markers”—those sites missing from the road that still impart significant historical lessons. Roadside New Mexico delivers a useful companion for travellers who want to understand more about the landscapes and inhabitants of the state.

Research in urban development in the social sciences has increasingly emphasized the importance of underground infrastructure for envisaging sustainable cities and for critiquing the economies of extraction. Urban Undergrounds: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Perspectives demonstrates the urgency of integrating a below-ground perspective into the emerging field of the Urban Humanities.The collection is divided into three thematic sections that cluster and revisit different sets of well-known motifs in Underground Studies: “Displaced”, “Buried” and “Wasted”. It showcases the intermedial nature of underground-focused analyses in literature, extending from literary texts to a wider range of cultural forms, including films, graphic novels and videogames. The contributors build on recent scholarship that has expanded the field into new interdisciplinary areas, including intersections with memory studies, ecocriticism and decolonial perspectives. Urban Undergrounds also explores lesser-studied subterranes, including those of Warsaw, Athens, Mexico City, Johannesburg and Santiago de Chile. The book’s substantial introduction offers a guiding theoretical and methodological framework for future scholars working with underground perspectives in literary and cultural studies.This thought-provoking and illuminating collection is a valuable resource for students and scholars in the areas of Literary Urban Studies, Underground Studies and Geocriticism, and more broadly in the Urban Humanities and Spatial Humanities.

Research in urban development in the social sciences has increasingly emphasized the importance of underground infrastructure for envisaging sustainable cities and for critiquing the economies of extraction. Urban Undergrounds: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Perspectives demonstrates the urgency of integrating a below-ground perspective into the emerging field of the Urban Humanities.The collection is divided into three thematic sections that cluster and revisit different sets of well-known motifs in Underground Studies: “Displaced”, “Buried” and “Wasted”. It showcases the intermedial nature of underground-focused analyses in literature, extending from literary texts to a wider range of cultural forms, including films, graphic novels and videogames. The contributors build on recent scholarship that has expanded the field into new interdisciplinary areas, including intersections with memory studies, ecocriticism and decolonial perspectives. Urban Undergrounds also explores lesser-studied subterranes, including those of Warsaw, Athens, Mexico City, Johannesburg and Santiago de Chile. The book’s substantial introduction offers a guiding theoretical and methodological framework for future scholars working with underground perspectives in literary and cultural studies.This thought-provoking and illuminating collection is a valuable resource for students and scholars in the areas of Literary Urban Studies, Underground Studies and Geocriticism, and more broadly in the Urban Humanities and Spatial Humanities.