Duke University Dissertation Template
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The Demands of Integration: Space, Place and Genre in Berlin by Johanna Schuster-Craig Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Erdağ Göknar, Supervisor ___________________________ Tina Campt ___________________________ William Collins Donahue ___________________________ Ann Marie Rasmussen Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 ABSTRACT The Demands of Integration: Space, Place and Genre in Berlin by Johanna Schuster-Craig Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Erdağ Göknar, Supervisor ___________________________ Tina Campt ___________________________ William Collins Donahue ___________________________ Ann Marie Rasmussen An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 Copyright by Johanna Schuster-Craig 2012 Abstract This dissertation argues that the metaphor of integration, which describes the incorporation of immigrants into the national body, functions as a way to exclude “Muslim” immigrants from German national identity, as these groups are those most often deemed “un-integratable” (unintegrierbar). By looking at cultural products, I explore how the spatial metaphor of integration is both contested and reproduced in a variety of narratives. One of the recurring themes in integration debates focuses on finding a balance between multiculturalist strategies of population management; the regulation and enforcement of the third article of the German Basic Law, which guarantees gender parity; and the public religious life of conservative Islamic social movements like Salafism, which demand gender segregation as a tenet of faith. Discourses of women's rights as human rights and identity politics are the two most frequent tactical interventions on the integration landscape. My dissertation explores how identity, performance and experience of gendered oppression manifest in the autobiographical novels of Turkish-German women, comic books, journalistic polemics, activist video and the activities of the social work organization Projekt Heroes. Reading a broad array of cultural products allows me to explore the tension between the metaphor of integration and the reluctance of some to reenvision German national identity, with specific iv attention to how this tension plays out in space and place. Through literary analysis, participant-observation and interviews, I explore how the language of integration shapes the space of the nation and limits what the space of the nation could become. I argue that the tone of integration debates over the past decade has become increasingly shrill, and propose that limited and strategic silence may offer potential as a political strategy for reenvisioning modes of immigration incorporation. v Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv Figures ........................................................................................................................................ viii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... ix 1. Introduction: The Demands of Integration ........................................................................... 1 1.1 Narratives of Integration and Identity ........................................................................ 10 1.2 Methodological Framework .......................................................................................... 16 1.3 Muslim Women’s Autobiography ............................................................................... 24 1.4 Overview of Chapters .................................................................................................... 34 2. Critically Untouchable Narratives ........................................................................................ 46 2.1 Freedom as a Disciplinary Power ................................................................................ 51 2.2 Große Reise ins Feuer (Long Journey into Fire) ............................................................ 57 2.3 Multiculturalism and Integration ................................................................................. 78 2.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 100 3. Enlightenment Fundamentalists and Preachers of Hate ................................................. 103 3.1 The 2007 Polemic .......................................................................................................... 111 3.2 The 2010 Polemic .......................................................................................................... 124 3.3 Necla Kelek’s Die fremde Braut .................................................................................... 131 3.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 149 4. Problemkiez, Brennpunktviertel or the Bronx of Berlin?...................................................... 151 4.1 The Rütli School Affair ................................................................................................ 165 vi 4.2 Weltreiche erblühten und fielen ................................................................................. 183 4.3 “White Ghetto” ............................................................................................................. 198 4.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 208 5. Heroes is Becoming a Movement: Honor, Feminism and Social Work in Berlin .......... 211 5.1 Men, Honor and Social Work ..................................................................................... 214 5.2 Social Work as an Arena of Cultural Production ..................................................... 227 5.3 Honor and Feminist Practice ...................................................................................... 230 5.4 A Transeuropean Discourse of Honor ....................................................................... 252 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 280 Appendix A: Muslim Women’s Autobiographies in German............................................ 292 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 295 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 316 vii Figures Figure 1: “I myself have Muslim-Indian forefathers, but you can’t see any of that anymore.” (11) ........................................................................................................................... 187 Figure 2: “Exiles.” (40) .............................................................................................................. 191 Figure 3: “Christiana W., born 1963 in Portloko in Sierra Leone. The place was destroyed by rebels who murdered or drove people out. Christiana fled in 1982 before the atrocities of the political conflicts. She had to leave her daughter behind. Not until nine years later, in 1991, as the civil war broke out, was she able to bring the girl and her four sisters to Berlin. Christiana runs a restaurant on Boddin Street.” (43) .............................. 194 Figure 4: Examples of the stories that surround Faroqhi: on this page you can see three stories of individual residents appearing as subtext or background for the primary action of Anna’s children playing. The taxi cab connects with the thick rectangular box in the top right telling the story of Mehmet, whose story is introduced earlier on an earlier panel when Anna and Emily ride past the same taxi on their bikes. The neighbors at the sandbox each have their own stories. Berfin, a forty-two year old woman who sits with Anna on the bench, is watching after Yüksel, the one-year-old who is at the playground with Berfin while his mother was rushed to the hospital due to a miscarriage. (59) ........................................................................................................................ 197 viii Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the generous support of a German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation from August 2010 to November 2011. This fellowship enabled me to conduct fieldwork in Berlin. The Center for Interdisciplinary Women’s and Gender Studies (Zentrum für Interdisciplinäre Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung) at the Technical University of Berlin, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sabine Hark, was a very supportive academic host during my stay, especially the fruitful colloquium sessions which provided me with the first feedback on some of the chapters included here. Special thanks are due to Hildegard Hantel at ZIFG