«Ma questa è la nostra epoca!». Daniel Defoe, Stefan Heym e la censura nella Repubblica Democratica Tedesca

Abstract

This article deals with the short story written by the East German writer Stefan Heym The Queen against Defoe, from the notes of a one Josiah Creech (1969). Stefan Heym focuses on the arrest of the British journalist and writer Daniel Defoe following the publication of the satirical pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or Proposal for the Establishment of the Church (1702). In the representation of the English monarchic absolutism Heym adumbrates the political and cultural situation which was current in the German Democratic Republic. In particular, Heym is interested in the connection between the freedom of speech and the action of censorship.