The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts FOREIGN WRITING AGENCY: ABBAS KHIDER & MARÍA CECILIA BARBETTA WRITING TOWARDS CATHARSIS IN GERMAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AFTER TRAUMA A Dissertation in German Literature and Culture by Katherine Anderson © 2017 Katherine Anderson Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2017 The dissertation of Katherine Anderson was reviewed and approved* by the following: Thomas O. Beebee Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Comparative Literature and German Graduate Program Chair Chair of Committee Dissertation Advisor Daniel Purdy Professor of German Studies Samuel Frederick Associate Professor of German Susan Strauss Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Asian Studies, Education, Linguistics Elisabeth Herrmann Professor of German-language literatures and Cultural Studies Stockholms universitet Special Member *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii ABSTRACT Authors Abbas Khider and María Cecilia Barbetta both came to German as adults and have since written and published novels in German as non-native speakers of the language. While this decision to write in German as non-native authors of the language is in itself of interest, the reasons either author gave for their decision to write in German as opposed to their native languages inspired and shaped this dissertation. Both authors explained in various interviews that their debut novels could not have been written in their respective native languages of Arabic and Spanish. For Khider, writing in German allows him to build an emotional buffer between himself and the challenging events of his past; Barbetta described the language as a magic cloak, a Tarnkappe that allowed her to revisit the Buenos Aires of her memory, seemingly immune to its effects. The content of Khider’s and Barbetta’s first novels is strongly influenced by their respective experiences of dictatorship in Bagdad and Buenos Aires, experiences I have argued as traumatizing in this dissertation, in that they have a profound impact on the identity development of either author. After analyzing the intersections of Khider’s and Barbetta’s debut novels, I have concluded that traumatic experiences serve as both catalyzing as well as figurative influences in the writing process, both initiating and shaping the writing. The writing generated takes the form of a trauma narrative, a first-person account, marked by challenges to traditional boundaries between fantasy and reality and to time. Treating Khider’s and Barbetta’s novels as trauma narratives provides a context for understanding the capacity for writing to heal, or at the very least, address the symptoms of trauma. Whereas writing the narrative provides a framework for processing trauma, the process of writing in a foreign language, and writing in German as a foreign language in particular, provides perspective distance to the event, a venue for reinventing identity after trauma, and an avenue for healing play. My decision to compare and analyze Khider’s and Barbetta’s works in this dissertation was initially informed by student testimony in response to foreign language journal writing, by author interviews, and finally by the iii contextual factors that brought about this writing, including the controversial Chamisso Prize. In this dissertation, I bring together trauma research from the field of psychology and from literary theory to establish the contexts through which the catalyzing and formative influence of trauma on the text, the restorative capacity of the texts as trauma narratives, and finally the dynamic of foreign language acquisition in facilitating the writing and recovery processes became apparent. While the question why authors find writing in German as a foreign language preferable to writing in their native languages remains as the heart of this dissertation, pursuing the answer to this question raised further questions regarding genre and ethical responsibility. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Non-native writers of German in Germany ............................................................................... 1 1.a. Chamisso ......................................................................................................................... 2 1.a.i. The Chamisso Prize for Literature ................................................................................................ 2 1.a.ii. Chamisso the Predecessor: Why Chamisso Literature Should Be Read ................................ 7 1.a.iii. Who are the Chamisso Prize Winning Authors? .................................................................... 12 1.a.iv. Why Chamisso-Authors Write in German .............................................................................. 16 1.b. Background ................................................................................................................... 25 1.b.i. The Historical Background Enabling this Writing ................................................................... 25 1.b.ii. Background: Literary Developments ........................................................................................ 28 1.c. Research ........................................................................................................................ 34 1.c.i. Scholarly Research on the Literature of (Im)migrant Writers of German ............................ 34 1.c.ii. Research: Foreign Language Writing ......................................................................................... 37 1.c.iii. Addressing a Gap in the Research ............................................................................................ 39 1.d. Introducing the Authors Examined by this Dissertation ............................................. 41 Chapter 2: The Productive Relationship between Trauma, the Author, and the Text.......................... 46 2.a.i. Theory: Definitions and History from both Psychological and Physiological Perspectives ......................................................................................................................... 47 2.a.i.1. Theory: From a Psychological and a Physiological Perspective: Freud .............................. 50 2.a.i.2. Theory: From a Psychological and a Physiological Perspective: Janet ............................... 52 2.a.i.3. Theory: From a Psychological and a Physiological Perspective: Narrative Exposition Theory ...................................................................................................................................................... 57 2.a.ii. Theory: Trauma from a Literary Perspective ............................................................ 59 v 2.a.ii.1. Theory: Trauma from a Literary Perspective: Forerunner Cathy Caruth ......................... 59 2.a.ii.2. Theory: Trauma from a Literary Perspective: Recent Criticism from Ruth Leys and Stef Craps ......................................................................................................................................................... 61 2.a.ii.3. Theory: Trauma from a Literary Perspective: A Look to the Future with Robert Eaglestone ................................................................................................................................................ 64 2.a.ii.4. Theory: Trauma from a Literary Perspective: The Impact of this Work .......................... 66 2.b. Associations between trauma and modernity .............................................................. 69 2.c. Trauma within the Texts .............................................................................................. 73 2.c.i. Trauma within the Texts: Narrative Structure .......................................................................... 75 2.c.ii. Trauma within the Texts: Plot .................................................................................................... 78 2.c.iii. Trauma within the Texts: Language ......................................................................................... 82 2.d. Trauma as Catalyst for Literary Writing and Creative Force ....................................... 88 2.d.i. Trauma as Catalyst and Creative Force: Assmann’s Main Characteristics of Trauma, Supplemented .......................................................................................................................................... 89 2.d.ii. Trauma as Catalyst and Creative Force: Motivation ............................................................... 90 2.d.iii. Trauma as Catalyst and Creative Force: Productive Effect of Trauma on the Text ...... 105 2.e. Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 117 Chapter 3: The Healing Relationship between Trauma, the Author and the Text ............................. 121 3.a. Theory: Why narrative words heal .............................................................................. 122 3.a.i. Presenting the truth .................................................................................................................... 124 3.a.ii. Constructing identity through the narrator-audience dynamic ........................................... 126 3.a.iii. Establishing distance ...............................................................................................................