DescriptionLiving a life "on the hyphen" -- as the Cuban-American critic Gustavo Perez Firma calls it -- or in a "third space -- as the Indian literary theorist Homi Bhabha defines it -- has become the most common way to describe the condition of those identities in-between, to define the virtual, non-geographical space in which two cultures meet, yet simultaneously remain separated. Within this conceptual framework, my dissertation focuses on the literary and artistic production of transnational individuals in Germany. The literary production of these subjects, which originates in a 'trans-cultural' and 'trans-lingual' context, becomes the only space in which they can discuss and explore their new condition. In particular, I investigate how the authors reflect upon the idea of home and complicate the notion of belonging. By focusing on various representations of homecoming, I ultimately want to problematize and engage critically with the idea of border-crossing and traveling in recent literature from 1973 to 2007. As I analyze narratives where the protagonists express their need for roots and for a return, I show how these characters ultimately still entertain a strong relationship with their homelands, but at the same redefine time the very nature of that bond.
The first three chapters are dedicated to the Turkish-German writer Emine Sevgi Özdamar (born 1946), the Italian writer based in Germany Franco Biondi (born 1947), and to the cinematic representations of the acclaimed Turkish-German film director Fatih Akin (born 1973). In very different ways these authors give voice to their shared experience of migration and to the difficulties of adapting as foreigners in German society, while each tries to negotiate a new life and create new roots. The last chapter employs the reversed approach of focusing on a novel by the Austrian writer, Barbara Frischmuth (born 1941), who explores the question of multiculturalism and cross-cultural interactions and analyzes the relationship between German-speaking countries and the Middle East, in particular Turkey. Despite the different geographical and cultural backgrounds as well as the time period in which these works were written, they share stories of losses and restorations that challenge traditional concepts such as home, Heimat and belonging.