Abstract
The tale of Sleeping Beauty is a familiar one, and the allegorical application of this particular narrative to the case of the former German Democratic Republic, for example by German writer Peter Schneider (1990), seems particularly appropriate: Sleeping Beauty is the defenceless Eastern occupation zone; the wicked fairy the Soviet occupation authority, the Soviet Union and ultimately ‘communist’ ideology; her castle is the East German economy, sleeping, by Western standards, for 40 years; and her handsome prince is of course West Germany and its particular brand of market economics. The awakening and renewal are the economic transition to a viable, market-driven economy.
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© 2009 Helen Kelly-Holmes
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Kelly-Holmes, H. (2009). Narrating Transition in East German Company Histories. In: Galasińska, A., Krzyżanowski, M. (eds) Discourse and Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Language and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230594296_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230594296_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35600-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-59429-6
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