Effetto Plenzdorf. Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. e la ricezione di Goethe nella DDR

The paper aims to explore the relationship between Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers and its modernized rewriting by Ulrich Plenzdorf, Die neuen Leiden des jungen W., within the context of Goethe’s reception in the GDR. According to Lukács’ interpretation, Werther was primarily praised as an expression of radical protest against feudal oppression. However, by shifting the focus to the novel’s presence in the East German school system and book market, a schizophrenic mode of reception emerges – one that theoretically accepted Goethe’s novel into the literary canon while practically marginalising it due to its pathological themes. In this context, the publication of Plenzdorf’s Neuen Leiden represented a dramatic rupture in cultural appropriation practices, leading to a desacralisation of Goethe’s image and a renewed vision of Werther.