Stefan Heym's 'King David Report'

Unpublished material by the East German writer Stefan Heym present in the S tefan Heym Archive includes a short story from 1966, "A Conference on Liter ature". This humorous piece describes a conference in heaven of angels and writers, at which angels condemn the writers of the Old Testament for prese nting truth instead of propaganda. The present article outlines the story a nd places it in its literary historical context. It then draws out the para llels between the story and Heym's most acclaimed novel, The King David Rep ort. Most obviously, the story of David features in the enumeration in "A C onference on Literature" of behavioural flaws in the Bible. Further similar ities are the contemporary themes of truth, the role of the writer, and the relationship between the writer and the state in a totalitarian regime, lo osely camouflaged by the biblical setting. Features of structure and vocabu lary, both specific terms used and the employment of anachronisms to point up modern parallels, are also common to both texts. The resemblances combin e to show "A Conference on Literature" to be a microcosmic precursor of The King David Report. The long fermentation period of ideas may in part help to explain the novel's resounding success.