Chapter 4 - Spying and Knowledge

Summary

This chapter begins with a brief introduction to the origins and organization of the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) in the German Democratic Republic. It continues with an analysis of Timothy Garton Ash’s memoir The File: A Personal History, where he writes about his own file found in the Stasi’s archives. Using files from the Stasi, the chapter discusses the case of Chilean writer Carlos Cerda, who was exiled in the GDR from 1973 to 1985, and was approached by the Stasi to become an “Unofficial Collaborator” (IM). Next, it analyzes how the short stories “Ferrobádminton” and “Splendor and Agony of the Horses,” written by Cerda during his time in East Germany, engage with the subject of surveillance and exile. Finally, it examines To Die in Berlin, a novel that Cerda finished writing in Chile after his exile.