Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Nkimba, Kato

Titel

Representation of labor literature in "Der Spiegel", 1960-1990

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

1996

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The objective of my research was to conduct a critical analysis of the representation of labor literature in Der Spiegel. Critical years for the analysis were from 1962-1990. The year 1962 is pivotal because it is the year of the inception of the first postwar literary movement whose focus was on the world of labor, Dortmunder Gruppe 61. This study ends in the year 1990 because it focuses only on the labor literature in West Germany; and by 1990, the two Germanys had reunited; and finally, the new German reality necessarily placed other more pressing issues in the foreground. For this study, Der Spiegel was selected for several reasons, among them, the magazine's role in the postwar German press, its critical stance toward issues and concerns that affect both the domestic and personal values of the German public; and more importantly, the magazine's interest in labor literature as a topical issue. Based on this premise, the magazine's editorial policy, reflected both in the magazine's journalistic objectives as well as in parts of its statute, was used as a criterion for this study of the representation of labor literature. Both the magazine's editorial policy and the aesthetic values of labor literature were used as research tools in examining the treatment of labor literature in Der Spiegel. I show that because the literary works address issues considered "politically sensitive" and inflammatory, many of the interviews and discussions are devoted more to the controversies surrounding the issues than on the literary significance, or the social and political criticism of these works. To accomplish the goal of this study, Chapter II, III and IV focus on the analysis of the socio-political background, the depiction of labor issues from the socio-political background in literary works, and how Der Spiegel covers labor issues foregrounded in labor literature. Through a comparative analysis of Der Spiegel with Die Zeit and Merkur, Chapter V strengthens the arguments in Chapters II, III and IV. The findings support the thesis that the magazine's readership primarily determine what news is to be covered. The choice of issues on labor literature to be covered by the magazine was based on how the issues appealed to the magazine's readership. The findings revealed that while issues in labor literature fit the magazine's definition of "topical issues," emphasis was laid more on the issues surrounding the works and their authors. Even in the articles on issues in labor literature, more than half did not treat the issues to their fullest extent. As far as the approach, style and language of Der Spiegel are concerned, there was a degree of manipulation, which obscured the original explication of words, ideas and perceptions. In many instances, however, the objective of the story remained intact. The titles were for the most part effective in their intended objective, but sometimes they were misleading and raised false expectations. The titles occasionally lead the reader to search for specific information missing from the story. As much as the article strived to report the information "as is," content on the background material (labor literature) was largely missing. Hence, discussions lacked information vital to the reader in the formation of a personal impression or opinion on the issues under coverage.