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„Strange Worlds‟ in German migration literature, and intercultural learning in the context of German Studies in South Africa. PETRA LANGA Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (German) in the School of Language, Literature and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Supervisor: Dr R Fourie German, School of Language, Literature and Linguistics. Pietermaritzburg, 10. März 2009 1 DECLARATION I, the undersigned Petra Langa, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is a product of my own work and has not previously in its entirety, nor in part, been submitted to any university for a degree. ………………………………………………………………… Petra Langa 2 ABSTRACT This study examines the relationships between intercultural theory, German Studies (in South Africa) and post-war migration literature written in Germany. Migration literature as intercultural literature, and German Studies adopting an intercultural philosophy are thus associated by an intercultural aspect that also links both to a global network of intercultural relations. The study places emphasis on relationships rather than areas of research. This means that areas of research are looked at in terms of how they relate to other areas of research and other contexts. The underlying idea is that intercultural understanding can be taught at an academic level as an avenue towards building intercultural competence. At the same time, theories of an intercultural understanding should be informed by experiences that helped build intercultural competence. Intercultural understanding is based on the idea that assumptions of binary opposition are replaced by the notion that strange worlds can merge and form new ones, eventually replacing the old ones. The world is continually changing, and those who want to progress beyond what is known and familiar need to adapt to new circumstances, especially to those emanating from globalisation. This concept applies to German Studies, and led to the introduction of „Intercultural German Studies‟, a new branch within the subject that is critically discussed in chapter one. Chapter two looks at intercultural understanding in terms of hermeneutic theory, and with regard to the African-European context, the South African-German context, and the global context. Chapters three to six discuss migration literature in the light of teaching intercultural understanding (through German Studies), and with reference to intercultural theory in different contexts as presented in chapter two. Chapter three presents an overview of migration literature written in Germany since the 1980s. Chapters four to six discuss individual authors: guest worker poetry (chapter four), the works of Necla Kelek (chapter five), and Feridun Zaimoglu (chapter six). 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 1. INTERCULTURAL GERMAN STUDIES – A CRITICAL LOOK 10 1.1 Intercultural hermeneutics 11 1.2 “Hermeneutics of distance” 14 1.3 Understanding and learning 17 1.4 Understanding and tolerance 19 1.5 Some critical contributions to IG theory 22 1.6 African perspectives 26 1.7 Intercultural German Studies and literature 31 1.8 Intercultural German Studies and the didactics of literature 36 2. INTERCULTURAL THEMES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GERMANY AND SOUTH AFRICA 43 2.1 Migration literature in a cultural context 43 2.2 Hermeneutics 45 2.3 The universalism – particularism debate 51 2.4 Africanisation and transition 54 2.5 Global forces 61 2.6 Relating to cultural otherness 67 3. MIGRATION LITERATURE – SOCIAL, LITERARY AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS 73 3.1 Historical and socio-economic background 74 3.2 Issues of integration 77 3.3 Literary aspects of migration literature and its reception 81 3.3.1 Positioning 82 3.3.2 Hybridism 85 4 3.3.3 Time and space, themes and language 88 3.4 Educational aspects 91 3.4.1 Intercultural German Studies 91 3.4.2 Intercultural learning and migration literature 94 4. GUEST WORKERS AS POETS: INTERCULTURAL THEMES IN EARLY POETRY 98 4.1 Guest worker identity 100 4.2 Literature of victims? 103 4.3 Life in the interim 107 4.4 Creativity and language 113 4.5 Some didactic conclusions/suggestions 116 5. MULTICULTURALISM AND INTEGRATION: NECLA KELEK‟S BITTER TRUTHS 119 5.1 The demand to integration 120 5.2 Criticism 128 5.3 Headscarves, Enlightenment fundamentalists and European Muslims 132 5.4 Muslim identity in Germany and South Africa 138 6. FERIDUN ZAIMOGLU ON „KANAKEN‟ IN GERMANY 141 6.1 Against difference and assimilation 146 6.2 Abschaum – psychology and tendencies of a hybrid existence 153 6.3 On women and Islam 161 6.4 Conclusions 168 CONCLUSIONS 174 BIBLIOGRAPHY 182 APPENDIX 200 5 INTRODUCTION „Strange worlds‟ is the overall theme of this study. Perspectives that can be discovered in cultural diversity, global migration, literary expression and intercultural theory is what “strange worlds” means in the context of this research. I focus on the links between intercultural theory, German Studies (in South Africa) and migration literature written in Germany since the 1980‟s. My overall approach to researching these links is to investigate and reflect upon the complex systems in which many parts interact, forming clusters and developing a dynamism that promotes the emergence of innovative thinking. For example, the discovery of relationships between seemingly unrelated parts is a major objective of this work. This phenomenological or „complexity‟ approach can be an extremely useful tool in finding qualitative solutions rather than the more linear and rational systems that are usually discipline driven and perhaps at times more accurate in the traditional scientific sense of a positivist approach. Positivist and phenomenological research strategies tend to present diametrically different views. They can be combined but the nature of this particular research lends itself to the latter. The intercultural aspect in German Studies gained importance generally as a reaction to the compression of time and space in today‟s world and the increasing convergence of cultural and experiential timelines, which is commonly referred to as „globalisation‟. These developments are powerfully expressed in the literature of worldwide migration. In Germany, these experiences began with the post-war influx of migrant workers. This led to increased demand for German as a necessary second language and the emergence of integration politics, as immigration continued and immigrants settled in Germany to become an integral part of the population. South Africa has a history of cultural diversity, the most poignant being that of living under the apartheid regime. As a consequence of globalization, much of what is happening in one part of the world can be related to what is happening in another. An awareness of this broadens horizons and enables us to see our own world in relation to others, a process that often makes us more tolerant. At the same time, intercultural relations have proven difficult to establish for many reasons. “Outsiders always pose a threat to the status quo. Even if they are not 6 physically dangerous, they are threatening simply because they are different. Their apartness is dangerous. It questions our tendency to see our society as the natural society and ourselves as the measure of normality.” (Littlewood & Lipsedge 1997: 27-28) Looking at strange worlds and interacting with them does not seem easy or even natural. For many, it is uncomfortable. Remaining within our comfort zones does, however, limit our ability to analyse and judge our own situation, let alone that of others: “since we know our own local practices so thoroughly and unreflectively, the situated and local nature of meaning is largely invisible to us. It is easy for us to miss the specificity and localness of our own practices and think we have general, abstract, even universal meanings.” (Gee 2005: 76) In a world of cultural flux, the comfortable position is usually one of retaining one‟s own cultural identity. It is, however, vital to “appreciate that you are creating and negotiating your own cultural identity in the process of communicating with others”. (Holliday, Hyde, Kullman 2004: 20) The literature of migration makes strange worlds accessible to the reader and at the same time provides an outside perspective on the world we thought we knew as our own. What we see as our reality is a different reality for others. Blioumi (2002) suggests that analyzing migration literature requires new literary approaches to this worldwide literary movement. One of the main aspects of this new approach is the idea of a cultural – spatial syncretism instead of co-existing homogeneous cultures. (Blioumi 2002: 162) More generally, “emigration is a crucial concept for the understanding of recent developments in criticism and literature. For only when the contribution of non-indigenous ethnicities is taken into account such other key phenomena as globalization and multiculturalism or – in some parts of the world – colonialism and post-colonialism appear in full”. (Loriggio 1996: backcover) In the following, I discuss these and other issues within certain contexts and theoretical frameworks and as part of interpreting literary works. Chapter 1 focuses on intercultural hermeneutics developed by German scholars working on a “new paradigm” called „Intercultural German Studies‟ (IGS). A critical analysis of this new paradigm includes re-visiting the hermeneutics of Gadamer (1960), a discussion of the usefulness of a concept called „hermeneutics of distance‟, looking at aspects of intercultural learning and tolerance and evaluating IGS concepts from an African 7 perspective. Chapter 1 will also discuss the role of the intercultural paradigm in reading and teaching literature. The intercultural approach as explaining how we relate to others is inherently a universal issue and should therefore be considered from as many cultural perspectives as practically possible. Chapter 2 therefore seeks to broaden the theoretical framework for an intercultural approach to include not only the mainly German models associated with Intercultural German Studies but also intercultural theories from elsewhere.