Gott Ist Nicht Schüchtern"
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses March 2019 The Limits of Transnationalism in Olga Grjasnowa's "Gott ist nicht schüchtern" Rosalin Happe University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Happe, Rosalin, "The Limits of Transnationalism in Olga Grjasnowa's "Gott ist nicht schüchtern"" (2019). Masters Theses. 742. https://doi.org/10.7275/13678226 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/742 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Limits of Transnationalism in Olga Grjasnowa’s Gott ist nicht schüchtern A Thesis Presented by ROSALIN HAPPE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS February 2019 German and Scandinavian Studies Languages, Literatures and Cultures © Copyright by Rosalin Happe 2019 All Rights Reserved THE LIMITS OF TRANSNATIONALISM IN OLGA GRJASNOWA’S GOTT IST NICHT SCHÜCHTERN A Thesis Presented by ROSALIN HAPPE Approved as to style and content by: ___________________________________________ Jonathan Skolnik, Chair ___________________________________________ Alicia Ellis, Member ________________________________________ Andrew Donson, Unit Director German and Scandinavian Studies Program Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures ________________________________________ Robert Sullivan, Chair Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures ABSTRACT THE LIMITS OF TRANSNATIONALISM IN OLGA GRJASNOWA’S GOTT IST NICHT SCHÜCHTERN FEBRUARY 2019 ROSALIN HAPPE, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Jonathan Skolnik The terms “refugees” and “refugee crisis” have been prominent in media discourse all over the world – especially since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and large incoming numbers of refugees into Europe since 2015. Germany, whose media initially celebrated its “Willkommenskultur”, has become increasingly critical of refugees; political and civic exclusion has intensified, and emphasis has been placed on belonging based on peoples’ passports and hence nationalities, which determine whether or not someone belongs in a country. The author Olga Grjasnowa, born 1984 in Baku, Azerbaijan and who is of Russian-Jewish descent, took on the task of describing the horrific circumstances in Syria in the midst of its ongoing civil war in her latest novel, entitled Gott ist nicht schüchtern (2017). Moreover, she depicts individuals’ flight across the ocean and their eventual arrival and life in Germany. In her book, Olga Grjasnowa describes the lives of three young Syrian individuals and their extremely limited possibilities of leading a free, peaceful life due to their nationality and the resulting closing of iv diverse borders for them. Based on the scholarly discourse on transnational fiction and how this work may or may not fit into this notion, especially with regard to globalization and powerful nations’ economic interests, this thesis seeks to analyze how nationalist and capitalist policy makings affect people in drastic ways, as they find themselves uprooted and persecuted. By excluding a Western narrative voice, Olga Grjasnowa zooms in on the lives of Syrians and their hopeless circumstances, while showing how a “wrong” passport makes life for people difficult to navigate in Syria, Germany and beyond. By means of close reading, I analyze the novel pertaining to the war in Syria and the resulting politics, media coverage and individual “fate”, which is tied to limitations for people to escape these circumstances based on documents and national borders. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................iv CHAPTER 1. TRANSNATIONAL FICTION IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION....................................1 1 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................1 1.2. Transnational fiction and the role of nations anlocations......................................................2 1.3. Transnationalism in light of globalization.............................................................................4 1.3.1. Questioning notions of “identity” and “Heimat”.........................................................6 1.4. Writing beyond globalization: Collective identities of persecuted peoples...........................8 2. ANALYSIS OF OLGA GRJASNOWA’S GOTT IST NICHT SCHÜCHTERN.......................11 2.1. Gathering the novel’s themes...............................................................................................11 2.2. Transforming the notion of (collective) identities...............................................................12 2.3. Paradoxical notions of space and their diverse meanings for different subjects.................15 2.4. (Re)defining the role of maps and mapping........................................................................21 2.5. (Open) space versus borders and boundaries ......................................................................24 3. ENTERING THE WEST: LIFE IN GERMANY AS A REFUGEE.........................................32 3.1. The passport as one’s most important organ........................................................................32 vi 3.2. Confronting new borders within a new border: The refugee experience in Germany.........33 4. LIVES AND LITERATURE EVOLVING AROUND PASSPORTS AND BORDERS: A FINAL REFLECTION..................................................................................................................42 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................46 vii CHAPTER 1 TRANSNATIONAL FICTION IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION 1.1. Introduction Olga Grjasnowa’s novel Gott is nicht schüchtern (2017) deals with the Syrian refugee crisis– a topic we have been hearing and reading about since 2011 and especially since 2015, when large numbers of refugees entered Germany and other European countries. However, oftentimes the refugees remain anonymous and are reduced to their status as refugees-– a status that is beyond their control. Written in German in a sober, mostly descriptive tone, Olga Grjasnowa’s newest novel exemplifies the lives and stories of three young people who try to navigate life in their home country Syria in the midst of its ongoing civil war and later on as refugees in Germany. The protagonists face uncertain futures in a globalizing world that enables mass migrations and transcultural exchange, while simultaneously closing borders and controlling national belonging. Analyzing the novel pertaining to transnational fiction, certain features of this notion become apparent, especially when viewing it from the perspective of the 20th and 21st-century, the eras of increasing globalization and in the context of economic interests, Western dominance and the resulting intensifying persecution, as well as increasingly persistent boundaries and the powerful nations’ closing of borders for marginalized peoples. Hence, this thesis explores how transnational writers, such as Olga Grjasnowa, create narratives that focus on marginalized and persecuted peoples who are victims of our current globalized world, which is characterized by economic interests, wars, and closed borders for certain groups of people who don’t possess the “right” passport to live a free, unharmed life. Hence, this work aims at analyzing how fiction, 1 such as Gott ist nicht schüchtern, focuses on pressing issues of increasing disparity and imbalance caused by inhumane Western policy, while describing the lives of people directly affected by them–though without indulging in melodrama or pathos, but remaining descriptive and neutral instead. Olga Grjasnowa’s Gott ist nicht schüchtern transgresses national boundaries and shows the intertwining of diverse cultures – mainly represented by food – and hence complicates ideas of placing the novel within a national geography. The author, Olga Grjasnowa, was born in 1984 in Baku, Azerbaijan, of Russian-Jewish descent. As a teenager she emigrated to Germany when her parents fled the conflict between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the 1990s. Grjasnowa is a polyglot who easily navigates between languages and cultures, living in Berlin with her Syrian husband. Her native tongue is Russian, but her writings are in German, yet from the viewpoint of Syrians, and the book is set in Syria – a place to which she has never traveled. Through all this, the following pages will discuss relevant scholarship pertaining to the genre of transnational fiction with view on content and form, as well as the ways Olga Grjasnowa challenges and transforms certain ideas of transnational fiction by means of close analysis of Grjasnowa’s newest work. 1.2. Transnational fiction and the role of nations and locations Discussing transnational fiction and the role of migrant writers in her article “The Location of Literature: The Transnational