Book club Politics and Literature: Politics and Literature: Everyday Life in Authoritarianism

In the season 2025/2026, the book club “Politics and Literature” explores everyday life in authoritarian societies. We read novels that depict swift regime changes as well as slow descents into authoritarianism or transitions from omnipresent observation, through societal discouragement, to the deprivation of personal liberty. In addition to the unavoidable focus on the Cold War, we read 20th-century novels on experiences of powerlessness towards politics, militarisation and technocracy. We will also read novels with regard to how they deal with faith in the future and possibilities of self-empowerment. 

Starting from literary depictions of experiences with authoritarian regimes of the past century, we then go on to discuss current authoritarian tendencies. These tendencies are evident in the perfection of state control or in the skilful manipulation of public attention through social media by an emerging techno-feudalism.

At the first meeting on 14 October 2025, we discussed titles that we previously put on a shared reading list and agreed upon the following:

17 Nov.: Christa Wolf: Nachdenken über Christa T.

15 Dec.: Georges Perec: W oder die Kindheitserinnerung

19 Jan.: Egon Bondy: Die invaliden Geschwister

16 Feb.: Norman Manea: Der schwarze Briefumschlag

23 March: László Krasznahorkai: Herscht 07769

20 Apr.: Wiktor Pelewin: Omon hinterm Mond

18 May: Rafael Chirbes: Alte Freunde

22 June: Paul Lynch: Das Lied des Propheten

The book club meets once a month between October 2025 and June 2026 at Helle Panke e.V., always at 6.30pm.