Freeing Socialist Literature from Ideological Narrowness

Abstract: The fact that we have written literature today is not self-evident. It is the materialization of an oral tradition and thus a process of production. A Soviet quest straight after the Bolsheviki seized power was the revolution of art and the deconstruction of bourgeois art, leading to Socialist Realism becoming the only acceptable literary paradigm under Stalin, eventually being imported to the DPRK. However, taking away the metaphysical from the physical cannot depict reality in its totality, and thus, Socialist Realist literature is way too often mechanic, even boring. The author of this paper argues that Socialist literature has to free itself by going back to its root, the connection of orality with the written word as only in a liberal society in which everyone can discuss freely, meaningful literature is able to evolve. Objectives The paper shows why downgrading literature on a materialist basis is too narrow, showing the need for metaphysical openness. In particular, it shows why literature in the Soviet Union and the DPRK failed/ fails through materialist narrowness. Prior Work The paper recounts a small history of the “written word” embedded in a Marxist context and then shows how this Marxist context was narrowed in practice, taking two regimes (USSR/ DPRK) as example. Approach This research is based on qualitative characteristics going from general theory to a specific case study, showing the difficulties which arise out of the particular case to reframe theory. He question is how to free Socialist Literature from Ideological narrowness. Results The Marxist theory is able to criticize the problems of a bourgeois society of the study of its historical development. Marx could not study the phenomenon of exploitation without studying history. How could the proletariat have a class consciousness, if it is not embedded in cultural life? Human beings in a Socialist understanding have to reconnect with their nature, not focusing only on the material. Implications The author of this paper argues that Socialist literature has to free itself by going back to its root, the connection of orality with the written word as only in a liberal society in which everyone can discuss freely, meaningful literature is able to evolve. Value So far, there is no study yet which integrates the Soviet Union and the DPRK in connection to the problem of the written word, especially with the aim, not to dismiss any Socialist discourses but to widen them and embed them in a democratic framework. It bridges anthropology, philosophy and political sciences and is cross-culturally embedded in a Europe-Asia framework.