This journal issue is now a historical piece, since it is the last to be published in the GDR (German Democratic Republic), that is, in East Germany, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In truth, the international conference whose interventions it reproduces had taken place in the autumn of the previous year. I remember that we had been received by the French representative in Berlin, while the sounds of the street, agitated by students, and especially the music coming from the West at its greatest power, reached us. But no one thought, then, that the two Germanys would soon be reunified. Walking through the city with Colette Becker, the Zola specialist, we were particularly struck by the traces left by the Nazi regime on the walls of public buildings and especially the great synagogue... As for the conference, focused on theory, it took place in such a punctual and formal manner that I have little memory of it. I had, moreover, more detailed information from the two German researchers from the Soviet zone associated with the research unit I was directing in Paris (URL 5 Contemporary Literary Lexicology and Terminology), Katlinz Barck and Wolfgang Klein, very surprised to see me invited by the University of Berlin! The concept of "surreal", much used, though less so than the adjective "surreality" now used in all sauces, was not defined in a rigorous manner.

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