Junk literature

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Burning of "dirty and trash literature" in the GDR (1955).

Trash is a term used to denounce allegedly immoral or depraved literature .

overview

The debate about “junk literature” that began in the late 19th century was essentially shaped by a conservative “preservation pedagogy”. In the Weimar Republic, the Reichstag passed the law to protect young people from junk and dirty writing . Without a more detailed definition, especially novels and erotic printed works were subject to indexing . The definition of “trash” has changed since then, but the term still holds up. Today, books of inferior literary quality (or those that are believed to be) are referred to as "trash", mostly comics or novels that are assigned to the field of trivial literature . For comparable products in the film and music sector, on the other hand, the anglicism of trash has become commonplace.

What is called trash in German also corresponds to pulp in English . When it comes to literature, pulp fiction is synonymous with junk literature . Novels that were once considered trash are sometimes only rehabilitated after decades, as was the case, for example, with the works of the English author DH Lawrence, which are indexed for obscenity .

Beginnings of criticism of junk literature

Reservations about supposedly inferior literature are as old as this, but it was not until the 18th century that the dispute acquired a new quality as a social problem. The focus initially shifted to the reading addiction of servants, women and workers. The German-speaking area was one of the few in which, for example, trivial knight and robber novels or erotic “dirty stories” were not only perceived as offensive, but also increasingly as an attack on the entire value system in connection with the relative expansion of the colporte diary trade.

Since during the revolution of 1848/49 in the conservative press, especially in Austria and Bavaria, the term "dirty" or "shameful literature" was mostly directed against republican and democratic printed works, the term trash can only be proven in the course of the 1850s, but only in connection with "trash and disgraceful literature" or "trash and disgraceful novels". It is documented as an independent word for the year 1866. Hans Marbach, writer and editor of the Leipziger Zeitung, wrote in 1883 that the expression junk literature had become fashionable .

The accelerating social change and the emergence of movie theaters led to an intense discourse after 1900. Ministerial decrees to curb "dirty and trash literature" were passed in several states of the German Reich. The writings of Heinrich Wolgast : The misery of our youth literature (1896), Wilhelm Börner : The trash literature and its combat (1908) and in particular the book by Ernst Schultze : The trash literature were decisive for the trash literature debate . Their advance, their consequences, their fight (1909).

From the First World War to the Weimar Republic

In the First World War was the German Reich of the Army Corps severely restricted as holder of the executive power of the distribution of pulp fiction from 1916 by some Deputy Commanding General. A separate genre was formed by the so-called war- trash literature, under which series or individual works of the genres of adventure, love or the so-called criminal novel were understood, the title of which was intended to evoke the impression of patriotic literature. The fight against war junk literature was mainly pursued by the Dürerbund and the examination offices for youth literature . The decree of the High Command in the Marken, Berlin of March 22, 1916, in which 135 series of booklets were named, including Der Luftpirat and his dirigible airship, became particularly well known .

In the Weimar Republic , the trash appeared to many as a result of democratization and was often used as an argument for calling for stronger authorities. On December 18, 1926, the aforementioned law to protect young people from trash and dirty writing was passed. This phase of the trash fight was replaced by the rigorous censorship of the Reichsschrifttumskammer during the Nazi era .

Comics as the new focus of criticism

An article by Sterling North launched the first nationwide campaign against comics in the United States in 1940 . In 1954, the psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published his influential book Seduction of the Innocent , in which he tried to prove that crime and horror comics had an alleged harmful effect on children and adolescents.

Measures against junk literature in the Federal Republic of Germany

Shortly after the Allies lifted press licensing, the CDU / CSU applied to the Bundestag for a law based on the model of the Trash Act "in view of the development of certain excesses of the magazine market that threatened German youth and public security" (Bundestag, election period 1, printed matter 103) from 1926. With the passing of the law on the dissemination of writings harmful to young people on June 9, 1953 and the establishment of the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to young people on May 19, 1954, this phase came to an end.

In addition, from 1955 onwards, “Schmöker” and comics were exchanged for “good” books or notebooks in large-scale exchanges. The “bad” notebooks were burned or buried. Comics in particular have now become the epitome of junk literature. In Germany, the discourse was able to fall back on a culture-pessimistic attitude that strictly distinguished between the serious culture and the easy world of the mass media.

Youth book publishing Ensslin & Laiblin from Reutlingen called 1960 his young readers with the slogan "filth and dirt spoiling the mind and heart" to join the League of Friends of the Ensslin publishing house to promote good children's book in the fight against dirt and trash literature and used this for marketing purposes at the same time.

Measures against junk literature in the GDR

In the GDR, the term was used ideologically to address social systems and was defined as follows:

“ Trash : literature that is worthless in form and content (e.g. mendacious and sentimental romance novels) and, especially for young people, morally dangerous (e.g. gangster stories). The S. is vigorously opposed in the countries of the peace camp and eliminated above all by valuable youth literature, while in the capitalist countries it is partly put into the service of armament. "

- Lexicon A – Z in two volumes , Leipzig 1958

In the schools of the GDR, the class leaders gave instructions on the prohibition of so-called "dirty and junk literature" every year. In this regard, so-called satchel checks were also carried out in schools from time to time.

Assignment problem

Despite all the criticism, literature branded as trash offers the reader an escapist alternative. With the a cappella chorus "Reading trash novels", this genre received an unusual and offensive musical honor from Paul Hindemith at the time of National Socialism :

“ That's the best part: squatting on the stairs! And go through London with Nat Pinkerton ... "

- Paul Hindemith

In the course of the cultural turn , the separation between popular literature and sophisticated literature, as it had long prevailed in Germany, was gradually put into perspective. Regardless of its artistic-literary aspirations, the entertainment value of a story is definitely given a priority. Nevertheless, works of fiction are also subject to literary criticism, as evidenced by the sometimes heated disputes over authors such as Paulo Coelho and Dan Brown .

The stranger came naked and Atlanta Nights are two trash novels by two author collectives who wanted to show that even the biggest trash can be sold or published. The author collectives deliberately wrote novels without any literary qualities.

I, Libertine is also an intentionally poorly written pulp novel that was started to criticize bestseller lists.

literature

  • Edith Blaschitz: The 'fight against dirt and trash'. Film, Society and the Construction of National Identity in Austria (1946–1970). Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-50561-3 .
  • Anton Eigner, Otto Prokop : The sixth and seventh book of Moses. On the question of the criminogenicity of books and especially amateur medical junk literature. In: Medical Occultism. Paramedicine. Edited by Otto Prokop, 2nd edition Stuttgart 1964, pp. 239-281.
  • Rosmarie Ernst: Reading addiction, trash and good writings: educational concepts and activities of the youth publications commission of the Swiss Teachers' Association (1859-1919). Chronos, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-905278-80-4 .
  • Hans Epstein: The detective novel of the lower class. New Frankfurter Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1929.
  • Werner Glogauer: Criminalization of children and young people through the media. Effects of violent, sexual, pornographic and satanic depictions. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1990, ISBN 3-7890-2489-9 (4th edition 1994, ISBN 3-7890-3391-X ).
  • Kaspar Maase : The children of mass culture. Controversy about filth and trash since the empire. Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39601-9 .
  • Mike McGrady: Stranger Than Naked. A manual. Or How to Write Dirty Books for Fun and profit. Wyden, New York NY 1970.
  • Julius Mende : The sexual wave. Between sensuality and marketing. Images and texts. Promedia, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-85371-266-5 .
  • Manuela Günter : In the forecourt of art. Media stories of literature in the 19th century. Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-89942-824-7 .
  • Lars Rosenbaum: The pollution of literature. On the historical semantics of aesthetic modernity in the 'long 19th century'. Bielefeld 2019, ISBN 978-3-8376-4812-6 .
  • Ernst Schultze: The trash literature. Their advance, their consequences, their fight. Publishing house of the orphanage, Halle 1909.
  • Friedrich Streißler: The junk literature: why and how it is combated. Leipzig 1912.
  • Christian Vähling: Image idiotism and youth poverty. How German educators saved children's souls. In: Comic! Yearbook. 2004, ISSN  0945-926X , pp. 8-28.
  • Tanja Vorderstemann: The fight against dirt and trash - Series of magazines: Nick Carter, Nat Pinkerton, Lord Lister - Positive trash fight Wolgast and the position of the youth literature movement. Grin, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-638-65376-3 .
  • Fredric Wertham : Seduction of the Innocent. Rinehart & Company, New York NY et al. a. 1954.
  • Decree of the High Command in the Marches - Berlin. Against "junk literature". Berlin, March 22, 1916, printed as Annex D. in: Paul Samuleit: Kriegsschundliteratur. Carl Heymanns Verlag, Berlin 1916, pp. 47-54 ( online ).
  • Entry of war junk literature. In: Ulrich Steindorff (Ed.): Teubner's war pocket book. An encyclopedia about the world war. Published by BG Teubner, Leipzig / Berlin 1916, p. 11.

Web links

Wikisource: Trash  - Sources and Full Texts
Wiktionary: Trash novel  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Sander, Friederike von Gross, Kai-Uwe Hugger (eds.): Handbuch Medienpädagogik , Wiesbaden 2008, p. 42.
  2. ↑ Tages-Post from Linz of February 21 and 22, 1866, online: The influence of the book trade on the intellectual greatness and development of the German people .
  3. ^ Scientific supplement to the Leipziger Zeitung from July 19, 1883.