Christa Wolf, Der geteilte Himmel [Divided Heaven]

Sonja Klocke (University of Wisconsin)

Ed. by Jill E. Twark, East Carolina University, Jennifer Marston William, Purdue University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1963

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Christa Wolf’s short novel Der geteilte Himmel (1963), translated into English first by Joan Becker as Divided Heaven (1965) and more recently by Luise von Flotow as They Divided the Sky (2013), is today still considered a landmark text of East German literature. Following Wolf’s debut with Moskauer Novelle (Moscow Novella, 1961), Der geteilte Himmel marks the author’s literary breakthrough as it became a bestseller in the GDR, was awarded the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1963, and contributed to Wolf receiving the National Prize (third class) of the German Democratic Republic in 1964. In July of that same year, the eponymous DEFA film, based on Wolf’s novel and directed by Konrad Wolf (no relation …

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1937 words

Citation: Klocke, Sonja. "Der geteilte Himmel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 April 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22570, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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