Colonial Legacies and Cross-Cultural Experience: The African Voice in Contemporary German Literature

Summary

SINCE THE LATE 1970S, the multicultural diversification of German society in the postcolonial age of global migration is reflected in the rise of cross-cultural or minority literatures in German, which make an increasing contribution to cultural exchange in German literature by voicing and reflecting on cross-cultural experience from the perspective of migrants and their descendents. Even if one doubts whether there really is a “Turkish turn in contemporary German literature,” these new literary developments clearly illustrate how ethnic minorities raise their voice to participate in German culture and literature, and how cross-cultural writing challenges traditional notions of “Nationalliteratur” by diversifying German literary discourse, operating at the “interstices” of two or more cultures and literatures.

While literature emerging from the Turkish minority in Germany is the largest and most prominent example of these developments, African diasporic writing in German, although a much smaller field, also provides a significant example of this “turn” in German literary discourse. African migrants' writing implicates “German literature” (literature in German) in the aftermath of European colonialism and its continuing colonial legacies. Moreover, Africans and blacks in general continue to be seen as symbolic representations of the Other, attracting particular cross-cultural interest as well as being particularly exposed to xenophobic rejection and racist violence. While Africa has enjoyed a wave of popular interest in mainstream German literature since the 1990s, African diasporic writing in German reverses the gaze and critiques German culture from African perspectives, by reflecting on the cross-cultural experience of African (postcolonial) migrants in contemporary Germany.