Congratulations to Prof. Horakova who has recently published three articles, all related to her interests in postwar German literature and visual culture.

The first one, which came out in September 2024, appears as a chapter in the volume Postsocialist Memory in Contemporary German Culture, edited by Michel Mallet, Maria Mayr, and Kristin Rebien and published with De Gruyter. The chapter is about director Jörg Foth’s film Latest from the DaDaeR, which was made during the German reunification of 1990. While the film enjoys cult status among film buffs, it should be better known to a larger public because of how it sheds light on various suppressed debates and histories that had resurfaced during those tumultuous times. It is also a fun feature that mixes cabaret, political songs, and various artistic movements, including, of course, the titular Dada.

2024 was the “Kafka year” because we were remembering the centennial of the passing of Franz Kafka, one of the greatest German-speaking modern writers. Prof. Horakova’s second article, published in late October 2024 in a Special Issue of Oxford German Studies that was edited by Francesca Goll, explores the significant reception of Kafka during the Cold War. It looks at how dissident writers in East Germany and Central and Eastern Europe debated Kafka and used him as a critical and creative literary tool.

The third article, published in German in a volume titled Literaturbeziehungen im Kalten Krieg – Österreich und die DDR (Literary relations during the Cold War – Austria and the GDR) that was edited by Jacques Lajarrige and Alfred Prédhumeau and published with Frank & Timme in February 2025, uncovers connections between experimental poetry in Austria and East Germany. While on a state visit in East Berlin, the well-known Austrian poet, satirist, and Vienna Group associate Ernst Jandl also gave an unauthorized reading to a group of underground poets there, influencing a generation of poets and artists to come.