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Band 51 Heft 3-4 Harald Höbus ch, J oseph D. O’Neil (Hr sg.) C O L L O Q U I A G E R M A N I C A I n t e r n a ti o n a l e Z e it s c h r ift f ü r G e r m a n i s ti k Die Zeitschrift erscheint jährlich in 4 Heften von je etwa 96 Seiten Abonnementpreis pro Jahrgang: € 132,00 (print)/ € 168,00 (print & online)/ € 138,00 (e-only) Vorzugspreis für private Leser € 101,00 (print); Einzelheft € 45,00 (jeweils zuzüglich Versandkosten). Bestellungen nimmt Ihre Buchhandlung oder der Verlag entgegen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG, Postfach 25 60, D-72015 Tübingen, Fax +49 (0)7071 97 97 11 · eMail: info@narr.de Aufsätze - in deutscher oder englischer Sprache - bitte einsenden als Anlage zu einer Mail an hhoebu@uky.edu oder joseph.oneil@uky.edu (Prof. Harald Höbusch oder Prof. Joseph D. O,Neil, Division of German Studies, 1055 Patterson Office Tower, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0027, USA). Typoskripte sollten nach den Vorschriften des MLA Style Manual (2008) eingerichtet sein. Sonstige Mitteilungen bitte an hhoebu@uky.edu © 2020 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Alle Rechte vorbehalten/ All Rights Strictly Reserved Druck und Bindung: CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 0010-1338 COLLOQUIA GERMANICA BAND 51 C O L L O Q U I A G E R M A N I C A Internationale Zeitschrift für Germanistik Herausgegeben von Harald Höbusch und Joseph D. O’Neil Band 51 © 2020 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Alle Rechte vorbehalten / All Rights Strictly Reserved Druck und Bindung: CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 0010-1338 INHALT Heft 1 Themenheft: Imaginaries of Eastern Europe Introduction: Imaginaries of Eastern Europe Brangwen Stone, Nora Gortcheva, and Anca Luca Holden � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 3 Reconstructing the Anti-Fascist Legacy in Adriana Altaras’ Titos Brille Anita Lukic � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 11 Tonka’s Voice: Narrative Perspective and the Desire for Silence in Robert Musil’s Early Novella Laura Bohn Case � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 27 Language, Cultural Identity, and the Politics of Marginalization in Richard Wagner’s Ausreiseantrag. Begrüßungsgeld Anca Luca Holden � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 41 Refugees Past and Present: Olga Grjasnowa’s Gott ist nicht schüchtern and Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s Außer sich Brangwen Stone � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 57 Reflexive Unmapping: The “Wild East” in Valeska Grisebach’s Western (2017) Nora Gortcheva � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 75 VI Inhalt Heft 2 Unfreiwillige Wanderjahre von Egon Schwarz: Erfahrung, Bildung und Glück auf dem Weg zur Wirkungsmächtigkeit im Exil Reinhard Andress � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 97 I Witness Testimony: Assigning Guilt in Franz Kafka’s Das Urteil (The Judgment) Charles H. Hammond, Jr. � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 113 1968 als künstlerische Situation Gerd Koenen � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 141 „Jüdische Mütter“ in narrativen Werken von Jenny Erpenbeck, Julia Franck und Adriana Altaras Agnes Mueller . � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 163 Sites of Remembrance: Cultural Memory and Portrayals of the Past in Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Kinder- und Hausmärchen Jaime Roots . � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 183 German Postmemory Literature of the Holocaust: Koeppen, Wilkomirski, Sebald Reinhard Zachau � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 201 Inhalt VII Heft 3-4 Themenheft: Europe in Contemporary German-Language Literature Introduction: Europe in Contemporary German-Language Literature Anke S. Biendarra and Friederike Eigler I. Framing Articles Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa Lena Wetenkamp Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe Anke S. Biendarra II. Memory European Cultural Memory: The European House of History and Recent Novels by Jenny Erpenbeck and Robert Menasse Friederike Eigler “Eine Straße des Ankommens und Anfangens”: European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg Ian Wilson The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia in German-Language Literature about Former Yugoslavia Maria Mayr III. Migration Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU: Refugees in Germany as Europeans Marike Janzen Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige Karolina May-Chu “Ich bin Europa”: Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität in Falk Richters FEAR und Safe Places Daniele Vecchiato Inhalt Introduction: Europe in Contemporary German-Language Literature Anke S. Biendarra and Friederike Eigler � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 231 I. Framing Articles Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa Lena Wetenkamp � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 235 Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe Anke S. Biendarra � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 257 II. Memory European Cultural Memory: The European House of History and Recent Novels by Jenny Erpenbeck and Robert Menasse Friederike Eigler � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 281 “Eine Straße des Ankommens und Anfangens”: European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg Ian W. Wilson � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 303 The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia in German-Language Literature about Former Yugoslavia Maria Mayr � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 325 BAND 51 • Heft 3-4 Themenheft: Europe in Contemporary German-Language Literature Gastherausgeberinnen: Anke S. Biendarra and Friederike Eigler III. Migration Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU: Refugees in Germany as Europeans Marike Janzen � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 345 Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige Karolina May-Chu � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 363 “Ich bin Europa”: Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität in Falk Richters FEAR und Safe Places Daniele Vecchiato � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 383 Verzeichnis der Autorinnen und Autoren � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 405 230 Inhalt Introduction: Europe in Contemporary German-Language Literature 231 231 Anke S� Biendarra and Friederike Eigler Introduction: Europe in Contemporary German- Language Literature Anke S� Biendarra and Friederike Eigler University of California, Irvine / Georgetown University The European project, despite recurring prophecies of its impending collapse, is still very much in the process of determining its profile� Recent scholarship and creative writing have addressed the European project and cultural imaginaries of Europe in innovative ways� For example, journal issues have dealt with topics such as the future of Europe [New Literary History 43�4 (2012)] and European memory [European Review of History 24�4 (2017)]; scholars in cultural history (Peter Rietbergen), postcolonial studies (Dipesh Chakrabarti), and literary studies have deepened our understanding of both the histories (Walter Cohen) and trajectories of European literatures (Lena Wetenkamp)� The topic of Europe has also been central to artistic expression� In literature, recent German-language novels that look at Europe from radically different perspectives include Jenny Erpenbeck’s Gehen ging gegangen, Abbas Khider’s Ohrfeige, and Robert Menasse’s Die Hauptstadt. These and other texts are premier examples of an engaged art that asks about the state of European identities today� There is a special urgency palpable in these recent texts as they emerge against the backdrop of rising nationalist and xenophobic sentiments that threaten to tear the European continent apart - politically, economically, and socially� The eight contributions to this special issue address the role of “Europe” in contemporary German-language literature and culture in light of these challenges and crises� Considering the complex realities of the European continent, it is not surprising that the contributors do not provide any definite or uniform answers to the question of what constitutes Europe today� Instead, all eight articles illustrate in different ways that from the perspective of cultural productions - including novels, essays, theater plays, and films - it is more useful to think of “Europe” as an ongoing and contested discourse, not a clearly defined entity or geopolitical place� Indeed, we submit that this is precisely one of the main contributions of the arts to the changing face of Europe: cultural producers, novelists, essayists, playwrights, and poets open up imaginative critical spaces for Europe and thus 232 Anke S� Biendarra and Friederike Eigler challenge ongoing efforts to determine European identities in the political and economic realms� The two opening articles exemplify markedly different approaches and thus set the tone for this special issue on “Europe in Contemporary German-Language Literature�” Anke S� Biendarra explores how writers and intellectuals address the challenges Europe faces at a discursive level - via manifestos and published correspondences - and conceptualizes these efforts as constituting a new European Republic of Letters� By contrast, Lena Wetenkamp focuses on particular stylistic features in essays and novels that are concerned with configurations of Europe, and she identifies the “list” as a literary device that corresponds with nonhierarchical and decentralized notions of Europe� Taken together, the approaches these opening articles adopt - a topical and contextual one (Biendarra) and a narrative and stylistic one (Wetenkamp) - represent the range of literary scholarship on Europe today� The subsequent contributions address in more detail two overarching topics that are also mentioned in the introductory articles and that feature prominently in contemporary discussions of Europe: the role of Europe’s history for the continent’s present and future on the one hand and the significance of migration for Europe and, more specifically, for the European Union, on the other� Aspects of European cultural memory are examined in three articles: In Friederike Eigler’s discussion of novels by Erpenbeck and Menasse and their contrasting outlook on the European past and future; in Ian Wilson’s exploration of cosmopolitan notions of “Heimat” in the work of Barbara Honigmann; and in Maria Mayr’s analysis of the critical potential in the postsocialist Yugoslav nostalgia that she identifies in works by Marina Achenbach and Marica Bodrožić� The last three contributions address aspects of migration and integration: in Marike Janzen’s discussion of two documentary works about refugees seeking asylum (Benjamin Kahlmeyer’s film Die Unsichtbaren and Lola Arias’s play What They Want to Hear); in Karolina May-Chu’s reading of Abbas Khider’s novel-Ohrfeige as a German, European, and global novel; and finally in Daniele Vecchiato’s analysis of Falk Richter’s response to Europe’s xenophobia and farright populism in his plays FEAR and Safe Places� Taken together, these eight articles illustrate the significant contributions of literature, theater and film and, by extension, of literary and film studies, in tackling the question of Europe� Artistic contributions reject anti-European populism on the one hand and challenge dominant political and economic interests on the other� Beyond this critical function, the arts and in particular literature and film, hold the potential for “‘thickening’ imaginative relations with other groups […] and helping to create alternative shared points of refer- Introduction: Europe in Contemporary German-Language Literature 233 ence for the future,” as Anne Rigney has put it in a seminal article on European memory (2012, 622)� Despite the transnational European dimension in all of the works discussed in this special issue, it is important to keep in mind that they address Europe from the perspective of German-language writers living in Germany and Austria (with the exception of Barbara Honigmann, who lives in Strasbourg)� Artists in the German-speaking countries are particularly eager to look outward and focus on European topics� Germany’s problematic past as well as its current role as the economic engine within the E�U� and as a creator of policies concerning debt forgiveness and migration has influenced the public discourse in Europe in innumerable ways� In light of the entrance of the Alternative für Deutschland into the German parliament and increasing xenophobia and antisemitism, Germany in particular is facing high stakes in proving its cosmopolitan openness and global perspective� This, in turn, has reflected back on artistic production� In German Studies, it is now commonly accepted that German-language writers from both “majority” and “minority” origin engage with and against diverse backgrounds, and that the marker “transnational” should be primarily applied to textual approaches rather than solely to authors who happen to have a transnational background (Herrmann et al� 7—8)� Engagements with the European dimensions of cultural identity, belonging, memory, and migration such as the ones showcased in this special issue provide important examples of transnational perspectives both in the artworks themselves and in the analytical focus of German studies scholars� Works Cited Chakrabarti, Dipesh� Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference� Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2000� Cohen, Walter� A History of European Literature. The West and the World from Antiquity to the Present� Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2017� Herrmann, Elisabeth, Carrie Smith-Prei, and Stuart Taberner, eds� Transnationalism in Contemporary German-Language Literature. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2015� Rietbergen, Peter� Europe. A Cultural History. London/ New York: Routledge, 2015� Rigney, Ann� “Transforming Memory and the European Project�” New Literary History 43�4 (2012): 607—28� Wetenkamp, Lena. Europa erzählt, verortet, erinnert. Europa-Diskurse in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017� Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 235 Europa als Liste. Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa Lena Wetenkamp Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Abstract: The article argues that many contemporary novels and essays operate with lists and enumerations as narrative strategy and stylistic feature to address the topic of Europe� The list as a framework that holds separate und disparate items together acts as an ideal aesthetic device to address the European project� In the paratactic structure of a list, every element has the same value� Therefore, lists foster the concept of diversity and equal partnership� Furthermore, lists can serve different functions: they can order, remind or commemorate� By looking at lists in literary texts by Ilma Rakusa, Karl-Markus Gauß and Hans Magnus Enzensberger the article explores how these different functions of lists help us to further define the term and concept of “Europe�” Lists incorporated in texts engaging with European culture and identity show images critically questioning the concepts of center and periphery� Contemporary authors thereby challenge the assumption of a unified and consistent cultural European space and stress concepts of diversity, heterogeneity and plurality� Keywords: German contemporary literature, Europe, literary lists, narrative strategies Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und vor allem die Zukunft Europas werden zurzeit intensiv diskutiert� In diesem diskursiven Feld hat vor allem auch die Stimme der Literatur Gewicht: Die Frage, welche Bilder, Vorstellungen und Utopien Europas Schriftsteller und Schriftstellerinnen entwerfen und damit zu einem Europa-Diskurs beitragen, erhielt in den letzten Jahren zunehmend wissenschaftliche Aufmerksamkeit� 1 Untersuchungen fokussieren dabei zumeist die inhaltliche Ebene und gehen beispielsweise den in literarischen Texten ausgebreiteten Vorschlägen einer Neugestaltung Europas nach� Die Frage nach der formalen 236 Lena Wetenkamp Gestaltung, der Art und Weise der inhaltlichen Auseinandersetzung mit Europa, stellt in der literaturwissenschaftlichen Europaforschung jedoch noch eine bisher weitgehend vernachlässigte Kategorie dar� Dabei ist es lohnenswert, für einen Moment den Fokus zu wechseln und nicht zu schauen, wie literarische Texte Europa als Topos, als Konzept, als Diskurs oder geographischen Ort verhandeln, sondern die spezifischen narrativen Verfahren in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen, derer sich Schriftsteller und Schriftstellerinnen in ihren Auseinandersetzungen mit Europa bedienen� Texte, die „in ihrer Schreibweise explizit die Implikationen, Formen und Funktionen der Kategorie ‚Europa‘ reflektieren, die deren historischen Index wie die darauf bezogene Kanonisierung berücksichtigen und die diskurskritisch angelegt sind“, können mit Christine Ivanović als Beispiele „europäische[r] Schreibweise(n)“ gefasst werden (36)� Es geht dabei also bewusst nicht um die (nationale) Herkunft der Texte oder ihrer Autoren, sondern um den gemeinsamen Bezug auf Europa� Um das in vielen dieser Werke auftauchende Zusammenspiel zwischen Inhalt und Form noch stärker zu betonen, habe ich an anderer Stelle den Begriff einer „Poetik des Europäischen“ vorgeschlagen, um Texte zu fassen, „die sich zum einen inhaltlich mit Europa auseinandersetzen, indem sie Fragen nach Raum, Grenzen, Sprache und Identität thematisieren, diese inhaltlichen Schwerpunktsetzungen aber auch durch bestimmte narrative Verfahren wie palimpsestartige Schreibweisen, Listen und Polyphonie formal umsetzen“ (Wetenkamp, Europa erzählt 344)� Unter diesen ästhetischen Mitteln und narrativen Verfahren möchte ich im Folgenden besonders die Liste hervorheben� Das Zusammenspiel von Europa als Inhalt und der Liste als Form zeigt sich beispielsweise an einem Gedicht von Antje Rávic Strubel: Europa beginnt dort, wo der Menschenhandel aufhört� Europa beginnt, wenn Ost und West, Süd und Nord bloß noch die Himmelsrichtung anzeigen� Europa beginnt, wenn Hautfarbe und Geschlecht nichts sind als fließende Attribute der Schönheit, wie Augenfarbe, wie Haar� Europa beginnt dort, wo unsere Vorurteile enden� 2 Rávic Strubel zeichnet hier ein ungewöhnlich positiv und vielleicht utopisch erscheinendes Bild Europas als Ort der Gleichstellung und Gleichberechtigung, das eine genauere Betrachtung verdienen würde� Mich interessiert aber vor allem die Form, die durch die anaphorische Wiederholungsstruktur das Wort „Europa“ an den Anfang jeder Zeile setzt und damit den inhaltlichen Fokus auch in der formalen Anordnung des Texts unterstreicht� Ähnlich verfährt ein Gedicht des Schweizers Pablo Haller, das in einem dem Thema Europa gewidmeten Heft Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 237 der Zeitschrift Akzente abgedruckt ist� 3 Hier verweist schon der Titel Europa in 25 Sätzen auf die folgende listenförmige Anordnung� Die 25 durchnummerierten Zeilen rufen mit Europa verknüpfte Schlagworte und Fragen auf, benennen aber auch verschiedene Utopien für den Kontinent� Dabei bildet der in den Zeilen 1, 13, und 24 wiederholte Satz „Ich bin Europäer“ (Haller 38; das vollständige Gedicht findet sich in Anmerkung 3) eine Art Leitmotiv� Listen sind aber nicht nur der Lyrik vorbehalten, sondern lassen sich auch in Prosatexten finden� Ein Blick in Robert Menasses Roman Die Hauptstadt, der als seltenes Beispiel eines dezidierten ‚Europa-Romans‘ gilt, fördert auch hier eine Liste zutage, die sich deutlich vom restlichen Text abgrenzt� Es handelt sich um eine Liste der auf einem Brüsseler Friedhof beerdigten namenlosen Toten: Im Alter von 24 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 20 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 26 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 19 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 23 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 23 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 22 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 31 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 24 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 39 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Im Alter von 21 Jahren - gestorben für das Vaterland� Mort pour la patrie, for the glory of the nation, slachtoffers van den plicht� (Menasse 87) Obwohl laut der Liste die einzelnen Soldaten in einem Einsatz für das Vaterland und damit in Verfolgung einer nationalen Idee gefallen sind, ruft die angefügte Übersetzung des Satzes „gestorben für das Vaterland“ in mehrere Sprachen einen gemeinsamen Bezugsrahmen auf� Dies lässt sich als Referenz auf Europa lesen, wo die Verfolgung nationaler Ideen historisch gesehen zahlreiche Opfer forderte� Eine solche Auflistung, die den Bezug auf Europa erst auf den zweiten Blick erkennen lässt, findet sich in ganz anderer Form auch in einem Interview mit Julia Kristeva: „[D]as Mittelalter der Kathedralen, die Aufklärung, die Menschenrechte […], das Kolosseum, Bethlehem und Golgatha […], Dante, Shakespeare, Rabelais, Cervantes, Goethe …“ (Kristeva n� pag�)� Erst eine genauere Betrachtung und die Erläuterung der Autorin enthüllen, dass das übergeordnete Kriterium, der gemeinschaftsstiftende Zusammenhang, auch hier das „Wunder“ (Kristeva) Europa ist� 238 Lena Wetenkamp Handelt es sich bei diesen Beobachtungen um einen Zufallsbefund? Davon ist nicht auszugehen: Der Zusammenhang des inhaltlichen Fokus auf Europa und der Darstellungsform der Liste scheint ganz im Gegenteil bei all diesen Beispielen nicht willkürlich gewählt� Vielmehr bedienen sich literarische Darstellungen - so die hier vertretene These - zunehmend nichtnarrativer Formen zur Beschreibung des gegenwärtigen Europas� Die Beispiele zeigen, dass Lyrik, Erzähltexte und Essays der Gegenwart mit Listen und Aufzählungen operieren, um sich dem schwer fassbaren Konstrukt Europa zu nähern� Es stellen sich also die Fragen: Warum Listen? Warum gerade diese Form in der Auseinandersetzung mit Europa? Will man die simpel erscheinende Form der Liste definitorisch fassen, bietet sich die Definition Belknaps an, der eine Liste als „a formally organized block of information that is composed of a set of members“ (15) bezeichnet� Ähnlich hält auch von Contzen fest: „Die Liste ist eine aus distinkten Elementen bestehende formale Einheit“ („Grenzfälle des Erzählens“ 222)� Erlin spezifiziert diese Definition bezüglich der Anzahl der Elemente, indem er erst diejenigen Sequenzen als Liste anerkennt, die aus „vier oder mehr Begriffen bzw� eine Zusammenstellung von Begriffen gleichen Umfangs, die zur gleichen Wortklasse gehören und durch Kommas voneinander abgetrennt sind“ (366) bestehen� Dieser Einschränkung unterliegen die hier versammelten Textbeispiele jedoch nicht� Kristeva fügt ihrer oben zitierten Liste noch den Kommentar hinzu, dass es sich bei der Zusammenstellung um „eine endlose, unaufzählbare Geschichte“ handele und setzt dabei mit dem Begriff „Geschichte“ und der Form der Liste zwei Aspekte in ein verbindendes Verhältnis, die in der literaturwissenschaftlichen Listenforschung zunehmend auseinandergedacht werden� Denn Listen - da ist sich die Forschung weitgehend einig - stehen Kohärenz stiftenden Erzählungen und Geschichten funktional entgegen� Die angenommene funktionale Differenz wird dabei jedoch als mehr oder weniger ausgeprägt gesehen� So verweisen Schaffrick und Werber etwas vage darauf, dass Listen im „Grenzbereich des Narrativen“ (305) liegen, von Contzen dagegen spricht Listen als nichtnarrativen Elementen den Status eines ‚Anderen‘ in einem literarischen Werk zu: Listen als „non-form […] [are] the narrative and literary ‚Other‘ that does not narrate“ („The Limits of Narration“ 256)� Andere Positionen fassen den Begriff der Liste viel weiter und sehen auch eigentlich als Elemente der Erzählung klassifizierte Kategorien wie Beschreibungen oder Gebrauchsanweisungen als Liste an, da auch diese einzelne Elemente in eine serielle Anordnung überführen (Fludernik 309)� Mit diesem nicht-narrativen oder antinarrativen Paradigma der Liste hat die Forschungsdiskussion sich in den letzten Jahren zunehmend beschäftigt, verschiedene Philologien haben die Arbeiten zur Erstellung einer Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 239 „‚listory‘“ (Contzen, „The Limits of Narration“ 241), einer Literaturgeschichte der Listenverwendung, angestoßen� 4 Warum erfreuen sich nichtnarrative Erzählverfahren gerade jetzt großer Beliebtheit, in Zeiten, in denen an anderen Stellen die Bedeutung von Narrativen für soziale Zusammenhänge hervorgehoben wird (man denke nur an das Aufkommen von Ansätzen wie Narrative Economics oder der narrativen Medizin)? Auch wenn Listen nicht erzählen, keine kausalen oder temporalen Zusammenhänge stiften, gleichen sie Narrativen doch in einigen Funktionen, da man beide als „Medien kultureller Selbstverständigung und gesellschaftlicher Selbstbeschreibung“ (Schaffrick and Werber 305) fassen kann� Zu denken wäre hier beispielsweise an den Rückbezug sowohl auf kulturelle oder nationale Ursprungsmythen (also Narrativen) als auch Ahnentafeln und Genealogien (also Listen) zur Festigung einer kulturellen Identität� Zudem wird auf Listen sowie Narrative zurückgegriffen, wenn es um die Aushandlung politischer und sozialer Entscheidungen und Ordnungen geht� Dieser Funktion kommen sie jedoch auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise nach: Während Erzählungen derartige Aushandlungsprozesse oder etwa Konflikte durch die Benennung von Handelnden und Handlungszusammenhängen der Beobachtung aussetzen, werden Aushandlungen in Listen allenfalls implizit mitvollzogen, meistens jedoch vorausgesetzt� Listen steuern politische Prozesse, üben juristische Macht aus und regulieren bürokratische Prozesse, während die sie legitimierenden Verfahren meistens uneinsichtig bleiben� (Schaffrick and Werber 306) Somit sind Narrative und Listen in Hinsicht auf bestimmte Funktionen ähnlich gelagert, weisen aber auch signifikante Unterschiede auf� Funktionen, die speziell der Form der Liste zuerkannt werden, sind Metafiktionalität und Selbstreflexivität sowie die Herausstellung von Vielfalt und Heterogenität (Alber 343), aber auch Ordnungsstiftung und eine Neuanordnung von Wissen (Contzen, „Grenzfälle des Erzählens“ 224; „Die Affordanzen der Liste“ 318)� Einer Liste ist zudem etwas zutiefst Demokratisches inhärent, da sie „Gegenstände[…], so heterogen sie auch sein mögen, demselben Kontext zuordnet oder vom selben Standpunkt aus betrachtet“ (Eco 131)� Dieses demokratische Moment trifft natürlich nur auf Listen zu, die nicht zum Zweck einer Hierarchisierung angelegt wurden� In Bezug auf Ratings und Rankings, aber auch auf Genealogien kann der Aspekt der Gleichsetzung und demokratischen Funktion sinnvoller Weise nicht angeführt werden, da diese die einzelnen Elemente der Liste nach evaluativen und vergleichenden Komponenten anordnen und die Liste demnach eine klare Hierarchie ausdrückt (Esposito 353)� Obwohl Listen damit sehr unterschiedlichen Funktionalisierungen unterliegen, hat sich - wie von Contzen festhält - in der literaturwissenschaftlichen Listenforschung die Annahme 240 Lena Wetenkamp durchgesetzt, den Begriff „Liste“ als „übergeordneten, wertneutralen Begriff zu verwenden, unter dem sich speziellere Formen subsumieren lassen“ („Grenzfälle des Erzählens“ 221)� Zu diesen Subformen gehören u� a� Inventare, Archive, Kataloge, alphabetische Texte und Wörterbücher, die einen je spezifischen Zweck erfüllen� Auch wenn Listen verschiedene Ausformungen annehmen können, ist ihre Form „transhistorisch konstant“ (Contzen, „Die Affordanzen der Liste“ 319), das heißt vereinfachend gesagt: Eine Liste ist als solche jederzeit erkennbar, unabhängig davon, in welcher Zeit sie angefertigt wurde� Die jeweilige Funktion ist jedoch immer an den spezifisch zeithistorischen Kontext rückgebunden; die Funktionalisierung kann stark variieren� Diese einzelnen Funktionalisierungen der Liste als Annäherung an eine mögliche Bestimmung des spezifischen Charakter Europas werden im Folgenden anhand der exemplarisch gewählten deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsautoren Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Karl- Markus Gauß und Ilma Rakusa genauer analysiert� Hans Magnus Enzensberger ist ein aktiver Kommentator europäischen Geschehens, der u� a� in seinem literarischen Reisebericht Ach Europa! Wahrnehmungen aus sieben Ländern (1987) das europäische Lebensgefühl und die Heterogenität der einzelnen Länder und Kulturen festzuhalten und literarisch auszugestalten sucht� 24 Jahre nach Erscheinen dieser Wahrnehmungen kehrt der Autor mit einem längeren Text erneut zum Thema Europa zurück, als er im Mai 2011 den Essay Sanftes Monster Brüssel oder die Entmündigung Europas veröffentlicht� Schon der Titel deutet auf eine euroskeptische Haltung hin, die er im Text auch deutlich herausstellt� Die kritische Einstellung gegenüber den Institutionen der EU illustriert Enzensberger mit anschaulichen Zitaten aus Verordnungen, Richtlinien oder Direktiven, die er häufig in Listenform präsentiert� Ein Beispiel sei hier herausgegriffen: Das Kapitel „Einblick in die Chefetagen“ seziert die komplexe bürokratische Struktur der Europäischen Union mit ihren zahlreichen Gremien, Ausschüssen und Präsidenten� Die Leserinnen und Leser erfahren so u� a�, dass der Präsident der Europäischen Kommission zahlreichen Generaldirektionen vorsteht, von denen Enzensberger nur eine kleine Auswahl auflistet: „die EAC, die RTD, die ENTR, die TAXUD, die MOVE, die ECFIN, die ECHO, die ENER, die ELARG, die BUDG, die SANCO, die JUST, die DGT, die HOME, die INFSO, die CLIMA, die AGRI und die SCIC“ (Enzensberger, Sanftes Monster Brüssel 25)� Eine ähnlich umfangreiche Liste der Exekutivagenturen, die der Kommission unterstehen und die ihre Beschlüsse ausführen, präsentiert er gleich auf der nächsten Seite� In beiden Beispielen wird das allgemein angenommene orientierungsgebende Grundprinzip der Liste konsequent unterlaufen und die Form parodistisch in ihr Gegenteil verkehrt, denn diese umfangreichen Listen stiften eher Verwirrung und potenzieren das Gefühl des Unverständniss- Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 241 es, da die Akronyme nicht aufgeschlüsselt werden� Obwohl Listen auch dort Ordnung stiften können, wo kein Ordnungskriterium erkennbar ist und wenig Wissen über die einzelnen Elemente herrscht (Esposito 356), kommt an dieser Stelle eine andere Eigenschaft exzessiver Listen zum Tragen: Die überbordende Fülle lädt eher dazu ein, den einzelnen Elementen keine Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken, sondern vielmehr über sie hinwegzulesen, „hat man die allgemeine Kategorie, zu der sie gehören, einmal erfasst“ (Frey and Martyn 91)� Vielleicht geht es hier auch um den bloßen Klang der einzelnen Akronyme, die eine ganz eigene lautliche Rhythmik produzieren� Solcherart Listen, denen es vor allem um den Klang der Namen geht, beziehen sich laut Eco nicht auf Signifikate, sondern auf Signifikanten, d� h� die Erstellung der Liste dient nicht der Sammlung und Präsentation eines spezifischen Inhalts, sondern vielmehr der Erzeugung eines lautlichen Klangs (Eco 118)� Doch ist die Form der Liste hier nur der ästhetischen Funktion wegen gewählt? Betrachtet man andere Texte des Autors, so stellt sich heraus, dass der Zusammenhang von Europa als Inhalt und der Form der Liste nicht arbiträr ist: 2001 veröffentlicht Enzensberger in der FAZ den Artikel Die eurozentrische Liste („Die eurozentrische Liste“)� 5 Der kurze Einführungstext zu der ganzseitigen Aufzählung verdeutlicht die Auffassung des Autors, dass die Frage danach, was Europa zu Europa mache, was also als europäische Spezifik anzusehen ist, vielleicht einfacher aus einer Außenperspektive zu beantworten sei, „wenn man den Blick von außen auf diesen Erdteil richtet und danach fragt, was andere an seinen Hervorbringungen, zu ihrem Heil oder Unheil, für brauchbar gehalten haben“� Die Liste fasst - laut der Erläuterung des Autors - weltweit auffindbare „Spuren und Nachahmungseffekte“ der europäischen Kultur, die ihren Ursprung oftmals nicht mehr erkennen lassen� Deutlich heben die einzelnen Einträge nicht nur positive Errungenschaften hervor, sondern die Aufzählung umfasst auch „Verhängnisse“, die Europa über die Welt gebracht hat� Einen Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit erhebt der Autor dabei nicht, die Liste solle vielmehr „der Nachdenklichkeit und dem Vergnügen dienen“� Die Liste umfasst Einträge zu nahezu allen Buchstaben des Alphabets, selbst zum Buchstaben Q wird noch „Quantenphysik“ aufgeführt� Lediglich unter X und Y sind keine Eintragungen zu finden� Welche Aspekte des Europäischen lassen sich aus dieser Liste herauslesen? Betrachtet man die exemplarisch herausgegriffenen Einträge zum Buchstaben A, zeigt sich ein sehr heterogenes Bild: Abonnement Achtstundentag Adreßbuch Airbag Akkumulator Aktbild Aktenordner Aktentasche Aktie Allgemeines Wahlrecht Alpinismus Aluminium Ambulanz Ampel Amphetamin Anästhesie Analytische Geometrie Anarchismus Anatomie Anilinfarben Antibiotika Anzeige Anzug, Sakko Apotheke Arbeiterbewegung Arbeitslosen- 242 Lena Wetenkamp versicherung Archäologie Armbanduhr Asbestzement Asepsis Asphaltierung Aspirin Asylrecht Atelier Atlas Aufzug Auktion Austernzucht Autobahn Autobus Automaten Automobil Autopsie Diese Auflistung folgt keiner inhaltlichen Ordnung� Wäre das Kriterium ihrer Zusammenstellung nicht bekannt, würden Titel und die Einführung des Autors fehlen, so könnte diese Liste Kopfzerbrechen bereiten - vielleicht bliebe nach der Lektüre nur „der nicht weiter spezifizierbare Eindruck einer reinen Heterogenität“ (Frey and Martyn 90)� Dieser Eindruck der Heterogenität tritt insbesondere bei zwei speziellen Arten von Listen auf, die sich laut Eco folgendermaßen unterscheiden lassen: „Es gibt einerseits eine exzessive Liste, die kohärent ist, sie bringt Dinge zusammen, die eine gewisse Verwandtschaft aufweisen; und es gibt andererseits Listen, die Dinge zusammenstellen, die bewußt keinen inneren Zusammenhang aufweisen, hier spricht man von der chaotischen Aufzählung“ (253)� Obwohl die Verbindung zwischen den einzelnen Elementen der von Enzensberger zusammengestellten eurozentrischen Liste nicht auf den ersten Blick ersichtlich ist, handelt es sich nicht um eine chaotische, sondern um eine kohärente exzessive Liste, da die Verwandtschaft der einzelnen Einträge durch den Titel und die Erläuterung deutlich herausgestellt wird� Beide Formen exzessiver Listen - kohärente und chaotische - fordern in besonderem Maße das kognitive Input der Leserinnen und Leser heraus� Den Rezipierenden fällt bei Auflistungen die Aufgabe zu, „die Leerstellen sowohl zwischen den einzelnen Elementen der Liste als auch zwischen der Liste und ihrem unmittelbaren narrativen Umfeld [zu] schließen […], um Kohärenz zu erzeugen“ (Contzen, „Grenzfälle des Erzählens“ 222)� In Bezug auf die eurozentrische Liste stellt sich die Aufgabe, so unterschiedliche Dinge wie „Aktbild“, „Anarchismus“ und „Aspirin“ in Verbindung zu bringen und vor allem für jedes dieser Elemente den Bezug zu Europa zu hinterfragen� Der Aufforderung des Autors, die Liste solle zum Nachdenken anregen, wird damit unweigerlich nachgekommen� Bei vielen Einträgen der umfangreichen Liste steht tatsächlich der Bezug auf ihren geografischen Ursprung nicht mehr im Vordergrund, da die benannten Phänomene mittlerweile zweifelsfrei Bestandteil einer globalisierten Weltkultur sind� Durch ihre Zusammenführung in Enzensbergers Liste werden sie an ihren Ursprungsort rückgebunden� Den Leserinnen und Lesern wird damit ein sehr heterogenes und zudem extrem subjektives Bild Europas präsentiert� Noch eine weitere Europa-Liste Enzensbergers soll hier aufgegriffen werden� 2009 ziert das Cover einer Literatur-Sonderbeilage der Wochenzeitung Die Zeit das vom Autor zusammengestellte sogenannte Alphabet der Krise („Das Al- Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 243 phabet der Krise“)� 6 Die Liste (die auch als solche mit untereinanderstehenden einzelnen Einträgen erkennbar ist) umfasst folgende Einträge: ABCP, ABS, CDO, CDS, CMO, MBS, SIV, SPV; Abwrackprämie; Analyst; Bad Bank; Berater; Casino; Kettenbrief; Paket; Pilotenspiel; Produkt; Rating; Realwirtschaft; Risikomanagement; Spritze; Standort; Toxisch; Verstaatlichung; Vertrauen; Wirtschaftsweisen; Zertifikat Diese Liste erfüllt in meiner Lesart zweierlei Funktionen: Ein Blick auf die einzelnen Einträge zeigt, dass es sich um Beispiele eines Vokabulars handelt, das im Zuge der sogenannten „Euro-Krise“ an vielerlei Stellen im politischen und publizistischen Diskurs aufzufinden war� Doch handelt es sich hier auch um ein für wirtschaftsferne Leserinnen und Leser oftmals schwer verständliches Vokabular� Die von Enzensberger verwendete Form der Liste bringt Ordnung in dieses terminologische Chaos� Indem Begriffe wie „Bad Bank“ und „toxisch“, die mit negativen Assoziationen verknüpft sind, in die bekannte Form der Liste eingeordnet werden, verlieren sie zudem etwas von ihrer Bedrohlichkeit� Denn Krystal betont: „there is something reassuring about a list, a precision and formality that makes us think we’ve got a handle on things“ (Krystal n� pag�)� Die Liste dient damit scheinbar der beruhigenden Ordnungsstiftung und als Mittel zur Kontingenzbewältigung� Andererseits nimmt sie an dieser Stelle auch eine archivierende Funktion ein: Indem sie Vokabeln, die einem ganz spezifischen historischen Kontext entstammen, wie beispielsweise „Abwrackprämie“ in einer Liste miteinander in Verbindung bringt, stellt sie ein Archiv der Terminologie der Krise da� Solcherart Listen „halten etwas fest; sie bewahren auf, was dem Fluss der Zeit sonst unvermeidlich zum Opfer fällt“ (Mainberger 344)� Die Liste präsentiert sich dabei in der speziellen Form eines Lexikons, da sie nach der Ordnung des Alphabets aufgestellt ist� Belknap spezifiziert diese Form wie folgt: „In the lexicon, words are inventoried with their definitions, ordered and arranged for ease of accessibility“ (2—3)� Diese lexikografische Anordnung und Form bedingen, dass jeder der Einträge mit einer Erläuterung versehen ist� Der dem einzelnen Wort folgende Text enthüllt dabei den satirischen Ansatz des Autors� Denn einem Begriff wie „Risikomanagement, das; “ folgt anstelle einer ernsthaften Erläuterung, die den Leserinnen und Lesern den Hintergrund und die Verwendung des Begriffs verdeutlicht, folgende Erklärung: „dient nicht der Begrenzung, sondern der Steigerung von Nebenwirkungen� Eine Packungsbeilage ist nicht vorgesehen� Ärzte oder Apotheker gehören nicht zum Personal“� Ebenso verfährt Enzensberger mit dem Begriff der „Wirtschaftsweisen, die; “, die er als „staatlich geprüfte Ansammlung von hochdotierten Kaffeesatz-Lesern“ bezeichnet� 244 Lena Wetenkamp Die oben aufgeführte beruhigende und ordnende Form der Liste wird damit in ihr Gegenteil verkehrt, denn einen größeren Überblick über die unverständliche Terminologie der Krise ermöglicht die Lektüre der Liste nicht� Von Contzen führt aus, dass Listen (sie bezieht sich dabei vor allem auf praktische Listen, die den Alltagsgebrauch beherrschen) „versteckte politische und/ oder ideologische Implikationen aufweisen können“ („Die Affordanzen der Liste“ 323)� Folgt man dieser Annahme, kann Enzensbergers Alphabet der Krise auch als kritische Stellungnahme zu den politischen Reaktionen auf die europäische Krise gelesen werden� Sie würde dann die von ihm schon im Sanften Monster Brüssel formulierte Kritik an der Undurchsichtigkeit und bürgerfernen Kommunikation der EU und ihren Repräsentantinnen und Repräsentanten noch einmal aufgreifen und - wieder mit Hilfe einer Liste - erneut formulieren� Dass enumerative Schreibverfahren einen engen Bezug zu Europa haben, zeigen nicht nur die Listen bei Hans Magnus Enzensberger� Als ein weiteres Beispiel einer Poetik des Europäischen kann Karl-Markus Gauß’ Das europäische Alphabet (1997) gelten� Der 1954 in Salzburg geborene Essayist und Autor ist nicht nur als Herausgeber der Zeitschrift Literatur und Kritik ein aufmerksamer Beobachter der europäischen Verhältnisse; er setzt sich auch in eigenen Texten immer wieder mit Europa auseinander� So gibt Ilma Rakusa in einer Laudatio auf den Autor allen an Europa Interessierten den Rat: „[D]enken Sie über Europa, seine realen oder möglichen Grenzen nach, lesen Sie Karl-Markus Gauß“ („Laudatio auf Karl-Markus Gauß“ 1)� In Gauß’ europäischen Alphabet unterbrechen Listen nicht den narrativen Fluss einer anderweitig strukturierten Erzählung, sondern das ganze Buch ist - legt man den oben genannten weit gefassten Listenbegriff an - in seiner alphabetischen Anordnung als Liste verfasst� Einen Überblick über die einzelnen Einträge des Alphabets hält das Inhaltsverzeichnis bereit: Auswanderung; Balkan; Čownyki, ukrainisch; Dissident; Euro-; Fremde; Grenze; Heimat; Identität; Jugonostalgičari, kroatisch; Jugoslawien; Kongreß; Kurva, polnisch; Lega Nord, italienisch; Mobilität; Nachbarn; Nation; Nationalismus; Opfer; Pronari, albanisch; Quote; Regionalismus; Sprachpolizei; Srče Europe, slowakisch; Tutiša, litauisch; Umvolkung; Volk, fahrendes; Weltsprache? Muttersprachen! ; Xarnegu, baskisch; Ymir; Zwei Europa (Gauß 205—06) Dieses Verzeichnis - quasi eine Liste in einem im Ganzen als Liste strukturierten Buch - folgt einer etablierten Form der Wissenspräsentation: Lexika und andere alphabetisch geordnete Texte dienen als Nachschlagewerk zumeist vor allem der schnellen Orientierung� Dem Titel nach könnte man also eine schnelle Übersicht über die wichtigsten Aspekte der europäischen Kultur erwarten� Doch im Gegensatz zu anderen Nachschlagewerken wie dem von der Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 245 Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung publizierten Band Europa von A bis Z (Weidenfeld and Wessels), dessen Einträge Funktionen und Zuständigkeiten der europäischen Union von „Afrikapolitik“ bis „Zuständigkeiten: Instrumente und Kompetenzen“ verzeichnen, fächert Gauß einen ganz anderen Gegenstands- und Assoziationsbereich auf� Betrachtet man die einzelnen Einträge genauer, stellt sich unweigerlich die Frage nach der Auswahl� Obwohl Listen wie dafür geschaffen sind, ganz unterschiedlichen Elementen einen gemeinsamen Bezugsrahmen zu bieten (Belknap 2), muss jeder Listenschreiber doch eine Auswahl treffen; die Frage nach Einbeziehung und Ausgrenzung ist eine unumgängliche Voraussetzung der Listenerstellung (Belknap 19)� Welche Kriterien könnten also Gauß’ Auswahl zugrunde liegen? Auffällig ist, dass er vor allem marginalisierte Aspekte europäischer Kultur, Minoritäten und Ambivalenzen, in das Zentrum seines Buches stellt� Geht man mit Schaffrick und Werber davon aus, dass alle Auflistungen immer im „Horizont all derjenigen Elemente [stehen], die nicht auf der Liste stehen, dort aber potenziell einen Platz hätten haben können“ (304), nimmt Gauß eine Ergänzung bereits etablierter Bilder und Vorstellungen von Europa vor� All diejenigen Elemente, die beim Lesen des Buchtitels vielleicht direkt vor Augen stehen, werden somit mit den oftmals marginalisierten, aber von Gauß aufgegriffenen Aspekten Europas verknüpft� In den als Fließtext verfassten Erläuterungen, die den Überschriften zugeordnet sind, befragt Gauß die einzelnen Begriffe im Hinblick auf ihre Bedeutungen, Geschichte und Verwendung - Analysen, die oftmals von einer gewissen Ironie getragen sind� Gerade die Form der Liste ist prädestiniert, an sich heterogene Einträge wie „Auswanderung“, „Kongreß“ und „Sprachpolizei“ miteinander in Beziehung zu setzen� Dabei steht die von Gauß gewählte alphabetische Ordnung einer hierarchischen Anordnung entgegen� Die Platzierung der einzelnen Elemente innerhalb des Buches orientiert sich ausschließlich an der Ordnung etablierter Lexika-Prinzipien� Generell ist die Frage nach der Anordnung der einzelnen Elemente innerhalb einer Liste - mit Ausnahme von Rankings und Ratings - als sekundär zu betrachten, „weil die Dinge oder Wörter auf der Liste dadurch, dass sie auf der Liste stehen, eine nicht weiter zu begründende Äquivalenzklasse bilden“ (Schaffrick and Werber 306—07)� Dennoch muss die Betrachtung und Analyse einer Liste laut von Contzen immer einer zweifachen Herangehensweise folgen: Die Analyse der Liste als Ganzes zieht demnach immer eine Betrachtung ihrer einzelnen Elemente und ihrer je spezifischen Ordnungsverfahren nach sich („The Limits of Narration“ 244)� Somit verdient auch Gauß’ Liste einen tiefergehenden Blick in Bezug auf die einzelnen Elemente� Diese lassen sich bei genauer Betrachtung bestimmten thematischen Gruppen zuordnen� So gibt es mit „Auswanderung“, „Mobilität“, 246 Lena Wetenkamp „Umvolkung“ und „Volk, fahrendes“ Einträge, die alle dem Bereich der Bewegung zugeordnet sind und das Fluide des Europäischen betonen� Andere Einträge wiederum beleuchten einzelne Regionen („Balkan“, „Jugoslawien“, „Regionalismus“, „Lega Nord, italienisch“) und stellen damit eine polyzentrische Perspektive auf Europa heraus� Besonders auffällig sind aber diejenigen Einträge, die einer anderen Sprache entstammen� So finden sich „Čownyki, ukrainisch“, „Jugonostalgičari, kroatisch“, „Kurva, polnisch“, „Pronari, albanisch“, „Srče Europe, slowakisch“, „Tutiša, litauisch“ und „Xarnegu, baskisch“� Diese Einträge beleuchten Phänomene, die Gauß an einem spezifischen Ort oder Raum festmacht, die aber leicht auf andere, ähnliche Bereiche in Europa übertragen werden können� So bezieht sich der Eintrag „Tutiša, litauisch“ zwar vor allem auf die Verhältnisse in Litauen und die dort im Alltag virulente Frage nach der Zugehörigkeit zu bestimmten Nationalitäten in Gebieten, die durch das Zusammenleben verschiedener Volksgruppen geprägt sind� Da aber Litauen nicht das einzige Gebiet Europas ist, das durch wechselnde Herrschaftsverhältnisse und (forcierte) Migrationsbewegungen bis heute durch das Zusammenleben heterogener Volksgruppen geprägt ist, haben die von ihm geschilderten Aspekte für viele Bewohner Europas unmittelbare Relevanz� Auch die sich hinter dem Eintrag „Kurva, polnisch“ verbergenden Phänomene der sprachlichen Verrohung der Alltagssprache und des zunehmenden Einsatzes von Schimpfwörtern sind sicherlich nicht allein für Polen zu konstatieren� Gauß greift also mit seinem Alphabet zum einen ganz spezifische Aspekte verschiedener Gebiete Europas auf, die Leserinnen und Leser werden jedoch - auch durch den Titel - herausgefordert, diese Elemente auf den größeren Kontext Europas zu beziehen� Nach Schaffrick und Werber sind Listen „sprachlich und medial konstruierte Formen […], die soziale und epistemische Ordnungen konstituieren“ (304)� Nimmt man zu dieser Überlegung die zuvor herausgestellte Annahme hinzu, dass die einzelnen Elemente einer Liste nicht hierarchisch, sondern in einem Äquivalenzverhältnis zueinanderstehen, wird bei Gauß noch einmal der demokratische Duktus der Liste deutlich� Er räumt allen Aspekten den gleichen Raum ein und stellt damit auch die Bedeutung marginalisierter Aspekte für die europäische Kultur heraus� Das europäische Alphabet kann aber zudem noch eine andere Funktion erfüllen: Die einzelnen Einträge befassen sich mit Aspekten, die nicht nur marginalisiert werden, sondern denen teils sogar die Auslöschung droht� Schmitz-Emans fasst als eine besondere Facette lexikographischer Literatur die „Lexikographik des Verschwindenden oder der Zeitlichkeit“, die der „Erfassung von kulturellen Beständen unter dem Aspekt ihrer Vergänglichkeit“ (134) gilt� Gauß’ Text kann ohne weiteres einem solchen Textkorpus zugerechnet werden, da er Aspekte der europäischen Kultur auflistet, die vom Verschwinden bedroht sind� 7 Nicht Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 247 nur an der von ihm im Eintrag „Xarnegu, baskisch“ aufgegriffenen baskischen Sprache zeigt sich, dass die Besonderheiten verschiedener Regionen oder Kulturen Europas durch Globalisierungs- und Vereinheitlichungstendenzen verloren zu gehen drohen� Gauß’ Alphabet bewahrt sie in seinen Beschreibungen jedoch auf und verdeutlicht zugleich, dass sie niemals ganz verschwinden können, sondern vielmehr an unterschiedlichen Orten Europas neue Relevanz gewinnen� Seine Liste ist demnach sowohl auf die Vergangenheit als auch die Zukunft Europas bezogen� Eine Archivierung europäischer Kultur und Geschichte nehmen auch die Texte Ilma Rakusas vor� Die heute in der Schweiz lebende Schriftstellerin wurde 1946 als Tochter eines Slowenen und einer Ungarin in Rimavská Sobota (in der heutigen Slowakei) geboren� Ihre Kindheit verbrachte sie in Budapest, Ljubljana, Triest und Zürich� Später führte sie ihr Studium unter anderem nach Paris und Sankt Petersburg� Vor diesem biografischen Hintergrund verwundert es nicht, dass Rakusa in der Forschung oftmals als Vertreterin einer sogenannten „Chamisso-Literatur“ oder „Migrationsliteratur“ und als „interkulturelle“ oder „transnationale“ Autorin angesehen wird� 8 Europa bildet nicht nur die Folie ihrer Erzählungen und Romane, sondern sie greift das Thema Europa auch als Essayistin und Herausgeberin von Textsammlungen immer wieder explizit auf� So findet sich in einem ihrer Essays folgende Aussage: „Europa ist ein Versprechen� Europa ist eine Drohung� Europa ist ein Gedicht� Europa ist ein Konglomerat von Interessen“ (Rakusa, „Eindrücke und Pausengespräche“ 37)� Wie Kristeva, Enzensberger und Gauß wählt Rakusa für ihre Annäherung an eine Beschreibung Europas das Verfahren der Enumeration� 9 Es sind in diesem Beispiel zwar nicht einzelne Elemente, die asyndotisch aneinandergereiht werden, dennoch ist die anaphorische Anordnung der einzelnen Aussagen - wie in Rávic Strubels Gedicht am Anfang des Aufsatzes - klar als Liste zu erkennen� Auflistungen sind bei Rakusa jedoch nicht ausschließlich mit dem Gegenstand Europa verknüpft, sondern ihr ganzes Werk ist von ihrer Vorliebe für Reihungen und Wiederholungen geprägt ( Jesenovec 101)� Die Autorin setzt sich in ihrer Münchner Rede zur Poesie mit dem Titel Listen, Litaneien, Loops selbstreflexiv mit ihren auflistenden Erzählverfahren auseinander� Dort konstatiert sie: „Listen stellen den Versuch dar, die Welt - oder einen Ausschnitt davon - zu buchstabieren, gleichsam kompakte Schöpfungsmodelle zu erstellen“ (Rakusa, Listen, Litaneien, Loops 13)� Listen bergen demnach vor allem kreatives Potenzial, sie bilden nicht nur ab, sondern erschaffen Neues� In diesen Schöpfungsakt bindet Rakusa alle Sinne ein; die Listen geben oftmals synästhetische Erlebnisse wieder� In ihrem autobiografisch geprägten narrativen Text Mehr Meer. Erinnerungspassagen aus dem Jahr 2009 liest sich beispielsweise eine Beschreibung 248 Lena Wetenkamp Triests, der Kindheitsstadt, wie folgt: „Wasser, Wind, Wärme, Stein, Weiß, Blau, Muschel, Tang, Immergrün, Lorbeer, Rosmarin, Rebe, Oleander“ (Rakusa, Mehr Meer 50)� Diese Liste entspricht Belknaps Beobachtung, dass die Mehrheit der Listen aus Nomen besteht (19)� Sie kann mit Eco aber auch als poetische Liste bezeichnet werden� Diesen Begriff führt er ein, um eine Unterscheidung zu praktischen Listen zu etablieren� Im Gegensatz zu denen, die wir in Form von To-Do-Listen, Einkaufszetteln oder Wörterbüchern selbstverständlich in unserem Alltag verwenden und die sich durch ihre referentielle Funktion, ihre Endlichkeit und Unveränderlichkeit auszeichnen (Eco 113) und niemals widersprüchlich sind, „wenn man das Kriterium ihrer Zusammenstellung kennt“ (Eco 116), sind poetische Listen in ihrer Verwendung und Form freier� Belknap bezeichnet solcherart Listen als „literary lists“ (xiii), die vor allem der Freude am Sprachspiel und Wortklang geschuldet sind und damit dem Lesevergnügen dienen� Auch Rakusa sieht den poetischen Mehrwert von Listen vor allem in „ihre[r] spezifische[n] Zusammenstellung und Lautgestalt” (Rakusa, Listen, Litaneien, Loops 27)� So lebt die eben aufgeführte listenförmige Beschreibung Triests von den W-Anlauten, der auffälligen Einsilbigkeit vieler Wörter und dem Assonanzgeflecht aus a und ei� Es gibt aber in Mehr Meer auch Listen, die nicht nur eine besondere Lautqualität herausstellen, sondern eine ganz andere Funktion übernehmen: Wie bei Gauß kann diesen Listen eine archivarische und bewahrende Funktion zuerkannt werden, und zwar nicht nur in Bezug auf die Lebensgeschichte der Autorin, sondern auch im Blick auf europäische Geschichte� In den Erinnerungspassagen findet sich die Ich-Erzählerin im Kapitel Notate, Listen am sogenannten „Umschlagplatz“ im Warschauer Ghetto wieder, der der Sortierung und Verladung der Juden diente� Dort beginnt sie, die Namen der Verstorbenen aufzuschreiben: Ein Kaddisch in Stein� Aba, Abel, Abigail, Abitel, Abner, Abraham, Abrasza, Absalom, Achiezer, Achimelech, Achitaw, Ada, Adam, Adela, Adolfajdla, Ajzyk, Ahiba, Aleksander, Boruch, Brajna, Brajndel, Bronia, Bronisław, Cadok, Cedakiasz, Celina, Cemach, Chaggit, Chaim, Chaja, Chana, Chanen, Chasia, Chawa, Chawiwa, Chizkiasz, Curi, Cwi, Cyna, Cypora, Cyrla, Cywia, Dina, Doba, Dora, Dorota, Dow, Dwosia, Eliab, Eliahu, Eliakim, Eliasz, Eliow, Eliezer, Elimelech, Eliszura, Eliza, Elka, Elkana, Elnaten, Emanuel, Fajga, Fajwel, Felicja, Feliks, Filip, Fiszel, Fadel, Frajda, Froim, Fruma, Fryderyk, Hadasa, Hagara, Halina, Hanna, Hela, Helena, Henoch, Henia, Henryk, Hersz, Hesa, Heszel, Hirsz, Hudla, Jadzia, Jair, Jakir, Jakow, Jakubjan, Jankiel, Janusz, Jechezkiel, Jechiel, Jedida, Jefet, Jehoshua, Jehuda, Jekutiel� Ich breche ab� Der letzte Name ist Zanna� Kein Mensch hat mich beim Aufschreiben beobachtet� (Rakusa, Mehr Meer 130—31) Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 249 Diese Liste fällt allein durch ihren Umfang auf und stellt eine klare Unterbrechung im Text- und Lesefluss dar� Solcherart in einen literarischen Text eingefügte Listen werden oftmals als Störung empfunden (Contzen, „Die Affordanzen der Liste“ 318)� Mehr noch als längere deskriptive Passagen, die den Fluss der Handlung zum Stillstand bringen und erzähltheoretisch mit dem Begriff der Pause gefasst werden können, stellen Listen Elemente der Textunterbrechung dar (Richardson 328)� Gerade dieser Bruch mit der narrativen Kohärenz ist eine Aufforderung an die Leserinnen und Leser, die Beziehungen zwischen den einzelnen Elementen zu entschlüsseln� Dieser Aspekt wurde schon anhand Enzensbergers exzessiver Listen deutlich� Welche Verknüpfungsleistung wird nun aber vom Leser angesichts der von Rakusa festgehaltenen Namensliste aus dem Warschauer Ghetto gefordert? Anders als bei Menasses Totenliste werden Alter und Todesursache hier nicht genannt� Ohne Kontextualisierung stellt Rakusas Liste lediglich eine Anhäufung von Namen dar, die in alphabetischer Reihenfolge wiedergegeben werden� Die rahmenden kommentierenden Worte der Ich-Erzählerin, die diese Liste als „Kaddisch in Stein“ bezeichnet und sie mit „ich breche ab“ beendet, können den Leserinnen und Lesern als Angebot oder Aufforderung dienen: Die Auflistung ist als Totengebet zu verstehen, das sowohl im Akt des Aufschreibens durch die Ich-Erzählerin als auch durch den Akt der Lektüre noch einmal performativ umgesetzt wird� Die Repetition der Namen, die jede Leserin und jeder Leser entweder laut oder gedanklich vornimmt, vervielfältigt die in Stein gehauenen Namen und trägt sie vom historischen Ort des Warschauer Ghettos an vielfältige neue Orte� Die Leserinnen und Leser von Rakusas Text werden aber nur eines Teils der Liste ansichtig� Laut Eco prädestiniert die potentielle Offenheit der Liste diese Form als Ausdruck für Phänomene, bei denen man „die Grenzen dessen, was man darstellen will, nicht kennt, wenn man nicht weiß, wie viele Dinge es sind, von denen man spricht, und man eine, wo nicht unendliche, so doch astronomisch hohe Zahl annehmen muß“ (Eco 15)� Gerade bei Listen, die ohne Einfügungen von Konjunktionen in der Form des Asyndetons einzelne Elemente aneinanderreihen, entstehe unweigerlich der Eindruck einer potentiellen Unabgeschlossenheit, einer Unendlichkeit der Fortsetzung (Belknap 30)� Demnach macht eine solche Liste dieses „Unendliche geradezu physisch fühlbar, weil sie tatsächlich nicht endet, nicht abgeschlossen ist in einer Form“ (Eco 17)� Die durch den deutlich markierten Abbruch nicht abgeschlossene Liste in Rakusas Mehr Meer ruft demnach allein durch ihre Form schon den Horizont nicht nur der namentlich genannten Opfer auf, sondern multipliziert diese ins Unendliche, da der Eindruck des Unabgeschlossenen auf die Unzahl der nicht genannten Opfer verweist� Listen ordnen damit nicht nur, sie kommen auch einer ethischen Verantwortung nach� Diese Funktion der Mahnung an einen 250 Lena Wetenkamp aktiv forcierten Erinnerungsvorgang muss in Bezug auf Rakusas Listen mitgedacht werden, bezeichnet sie doch selbst die Erstellung von Listen und Registern als „Poethik“ (Rakusa, Mehr Meer 132), was einen verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit der Vergangenheit impliziert� So fügt die Ich-Erzählerin dem Akt des Aufschreibens der Namen noch den Kommentar hinzu: „Festhalten ist besser als vergessen“ (Rakusa, Mehr Meer 129)� Rakusa ruft mit der Namensliste die Verbrechen des Holocaust auf, der als negativer Gründungsmythos der EU bezeichnet werden kann� Die Aufarbeitung der Morde und systematischen Tötungen ist aber immer noch nicht abgeschlossen; Karl Schlögel betont in diesem Kontext, die Nennung der Millionen Opfer des Krieges sei eine der wichtigsten Voraussetzungen für eine gemeinsame europäische Erinnerung (271)� Die bei Rakusa in die Narration eingebundene Liste kommt damit der ethischen Funktion des Erinnerns nach� Darüber bildet sich ein Wissen über die Vergangenheit, die an vielen Orten Europas mit konkreten Gewalttaten verknüpft ist, ohne die die Geschichte des Ortes nicht zu verstehen ist� Für ein Zusammenleben an diesen Orten ist die Bedeutung der Historie jedoch immens wichtig und es gilt, dieses Wissen immer wieder wachzurufen� Die genauere Betrachtung sehr unterschiedlicher Listen bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa zeigt, dass die spezifische ästhetische Form jeweils einen engen Bezug zu Europa aufweist und bevorzugt in Texten eingesetzt wird, die einer Poetik des Europäischen zuzurechnen sind� Die transhistorisch stabile Form der Liste kann jedoch kontextspezifisch jeweils anders funktionalisiert werden� Historisch gesehen weisen Listen seit der Antike immer auch auf den „Wunsch nach einer Formgebung“ (Eco 245) hin� Listen stellen damit den Versuch dar, konkrete und abstrakte Elemente in einen gemeinsamen Bezugsrahmen zu setzen und eine Ordnung zu schaffen, wenn diese angesichts der Unendlichkeit und Unzählbarkeit der Dinge auch nie ganz erreicht werden kann� Frey und Martin sehen Listen als eine besondere Weise von „Wissenstechnik“ (91) an, als eine eigene „Art, die Vielfalt der Dinge zu bewältigen, darzustellen, zu wissen“ (95)� Welche Arten des Wissens lassen sich demnach aus den Europa-Listen herauslesen? Zunächst ist der offensichtliche Aspekt der Heterogenität zu nennen� Die Form der Liste muss keine Kohärenz erzeugen, keine allgemeingültige Erzählung über die Vergangenheit, Gegenwart oder Zukunft Europas bereitstellen� Sie begnügt sich damit, heterogenen Elementen einen gemeinsamen Bezugsrahmen zu bieten und kann damit hierarchische Ordnungsprinzipien unterlaufen� Listen - dies sei als zweiter gemeinsamer Aspekt der betrachteten Beispiele festzuhalten - stellen darüber hinaus immer auch eine Aufforderung für die Leserinnen und Leser dar, sich genauer mit ihnen auseinanderzusetzen� Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 251 Um diesen Aufforderungs- oder Angebotscharakter der Listen zu präzisieren, wendet von Contzen den Begriff der Affordanz an� Damit stellt auch sie die Rolle der Rezipierenden heraus, die „unabdingbar in der Wahrnehmung und Interpretation der Handlungsoptionen, die eine Liste anbietet [sind]“ (Contzen, „Die Affordanzen der Liste“ 322)� Die Rolle des Einzelnen in der Frage danach, was Europa ausmachen könne, wird in den Europa-Listen also betont� Als letzter gemeinsamer Aspekt der betrachteten Beispiele ist die archivierende Funktion und damit ein auf die Zukunft Europas gerichteter Umgang mit der Vergangenheit zu nennen� Dies erfolgt durch die Bewahrung des spezifischen Vokabulars eines bestimmten zeithistorischen Abschnitts (wie bei Enzensberger), durch die Sammlung marginalisierter oder im Verschwinden begriffener Elemente der europäischen Kultur (wie bei Gauß) oder durch die von Rakusa und Menasse geforderten aktiven Erinnerungsakte an die Opfer vergangener Gewalttaten� Listen stellen damit eine Verbindung zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft dar und betonen die Wichtigkeit von Geschichte für das europäische Projekt� Eine Analyse der spezifisch narrativen Verfahren, der sich Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller in ihren Auseinandersetzungen mit Europa bedienen, bringt neue Bedeutungsaspekte zum Vorschein� Die Literatur trägt nicht nur über inhaltliche Schwerpunktsetzungen zum Europa-Diskurs bei, sondern stellt auch ästhetische Verfahren bereit, um Ideen eine entsprechende Form zu verleihen� Nimmt man die Implikationen dieser Ausführungen ernst und überträgt die herausgearbeiteten Merkmale und Eigenschaften von Listen auf das Projekt Europa, wäre man mit folgenden Aussagen konfrontiert: 1� Europa setzt sich aus unendlich vielen Elementen zusammen� 2� Es besteht keine hierarchische Beziehung zwischen diesen Elementen� 3� Es kann kein allgemeingültiges europäisches Narrativ geben� 4� Heterogenität kann unter einem gemeinsamen Bezugsrahmen bestehen bleiben� 5� Europa ist ein demokratisches Projekt� 6� Europa stellt eine Aufforderung zur Auseinandersetzung dar� 7� Europa darf seine Toten und seine Geschichte nicht vergessen� 8� Ebenso wie diese Liste ist Europa offen und potentiell unabgeschlossen� Notes 1 Dies zeigt zum einen die Panel-Serie zum Thema „Europe in Contemporary German Literature“ auf der Jahrestagung der German Studies Association in Pittsburgh, 27�—30�9�2018, aus der dieses Sonderheft hervorgegangen ist� In den letzten zwei Jahren widmeten sich dem Thema u� a� aber auch fol- 252 Lena Wetenkamp gende Konferenzen: „Europa im Übergang: interkulturelle Transferprozesse - internationale Deutungshorizonte“ (Flensburg, 9�—15�9�2017); „Europa im Umbruch� Europa in Literatur und Film der Gegenwart“ (München, 13�— 14�12�2018); „Fictions of Europe: Imaginary Topographies and Transnational Identities across the Arts“ (Brüssel 28�—29�3�2019)� 2 Das Gedicht ist Teil des Manifests zur europäischen Schriftsteller-Konferenz 2014� https: / / m�dw�com/ downloads/ 28902735/ das-manifest-zur-europischen-schriftsteller-konferenz-2014�pdf� 27 January 2019� 3 Pablo Hallers Gedicht soll hier zum besseren Verständnis vollständig wiedergegeben werden� Europa in 25 Sätzen 1� Ich bin Europäer� 2� Europa der Regionen, hieß es einst� 3� Europa der Konzerne & Bürokraten heißt es auch heute nicht� 4� Politik ist wie eine Hühnerleiter - in beide Richtungen verschissen� 5� Die Reihen schließen sich� 6� Der Osten hält die Hand hin & klemmt den Arsch zu� 7� Der Westen ist ein verlumpter Sugardaddy� 8� Deutschland weiß nicht so recht, was es soll� 9� Die Schweiz als Insel der Seligen� 10� Da ist eine „Insel“ in Einfaltspinsel� 11� Die Schlinge zieht sich zu� 12� Die Schweiz geht so lange nicht zur EU, bis sie bricht� 13� Ich bin Europäer� 14� Europa als Festung� Als Reduit der Besitzstandwahrer� 15� Utopie 1: Europa wird arabisch� Tritt das aufgeklärte Erbe der Mauren in Andalusien an� 16� Dystopie 1: Europa wird faschistisch� 17� Utopie 2: Europa wird weiter gedacht als die Grenzen des Kontinents� Europa als Idee� Aufklärung� Freiheit, Gleichheit, Brüderlichkeit� Eine Einladung zur Selbstreflexion� 18� Dystopie 2: Europa verfällt� Wir wandern alle aus, irgendwohin, wo das ganze Jahr die Sonne scheint� Ich blättere durch Immobilienprospekte aus Bavaro (Dom Rep)� 19� Utopie 3: Wir lösen Gesetze, Staaten, Konstrukte auf & überlassen uns uns selbst� 20� Dystopie 3: Europa wird zu einem Franchisenehmer der US of A� 21� Ist Europa heute mehr als Ennui & Selbstverneinung / -überhöhung? Europa als Liste� Enumerative Verfahren bei Enzensberger, Gauß und Rakusa 253 22� Der weiße Mann hat abzutreten� 23� Wo bleiben die Guillotinenfelder? 24� Ich bin Europäer� 25� Ich muss los� 4 Eine schöne Zusammenstellung verschiedener „Listen-Texte“ präsentiert das Blog: https: / / listology�blog/ � 27 January 2019� 5 Da der ganze Text sich auf der gleichen Zeitungsseite befindet, werden im Folgenden keine Nachweise mehr eingefügt� 6 Auch für diesen Text werden im Folgenden keine Einzelnachweise angeführt, da er sich auf einer einzigen Seite befindet� 7 Vgl� zu den Topografien, die durch Gauß’ assoziative Verknüpfungen entstehen auch: Agazzi� 8 Eine Auseinandersetzung mit den verschiedenen Konnotationen der Terminologie in diesem Feld kann hier nicht geleistet werden� Gute Überblickdarstellungen finden sich u� a� bei Sturm-Trigonakis (16 f�) oder Blioumi, passim� Eine eigene Auseinandersetzung mit den verschiedenen Begriffen nimmt Rakusa in einer Rede vor der Deutschen Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung vor („Die Vielfalt der ‚Migrantenliteratur‘“)� 9 Andere von Rakusa verwendete poetische Verfahren habe ich an anderer Stelle herausgearbeitet (Wetenkamp, „Europa als Palimpsest, Netz, Inventar“)� Works Cited Agazzi, Elena� „Das Europa-Bild in Karl-Markus Gauß’ Das europäische Alphabet und Im Wald der Metropolen. 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Ed� Daniela Gretz and Nicolas Pethes� Freiburg i�Br�: Rombach, 2016� 363—83� Esposito, Elena� „Organizing without Understanding: Lists in Ancient and in Digital Cultures�“ Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 47 (2017): 351—59� Fludernik, Monika� „Descriptive Lists and List Descriptions�“ Style 50�3 (2016): 309—26� Frey, Christiane, and David Martyn� „Listenwissen: Zu einer Poetik des Seriellen�“ Noch einmal anders: Zu einer Poetik des Seriellen. Ed� Elisabeth Bronfen et al� Zürich: Diaphanes, 2016� 89—103� Gauß, Karl-Markus� Das Europäische Alphabet� Wien: Zsolnay, 1997� Haller, Pablo� „Europa in 25 Sätzen�“ Akzente 63 (2016): 38� Ivanović, Christine� „Europa als literaturwissenschaftliche Kategorie�“ Der literarische Europa-Diskurs: Festschrift für Paul Michael Lützeler zum 70. Geburtstag. Ed� Peter Hanenberg and Isabel Capeloa Gil� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2013� 22—49� Jesenovec, Barbara� „Die ‚Poetische Autobiographie‘ Mehr Meer von Ilma Rakusa�“ Acta Neophilologica 45�1-2 (2012): 97—108� Kristeva, Julia� Interview� Die Zeit 2-Jan�-2014: 37� Krystal, Arthur� „The Joy of Lists�“ The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 3-Dec�-2010� Web� 27 Jan� 2019� Mainberger, Sabine� „Exotisch - endotisch oder Georges Perec lernt von Sei Shonagon: Überlegungen zu Listen, Literatur und Ethnologie�“ Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 47 (2017): 327—50� Menasse, Robert� Die Hauptstadt� Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2017� Rakusa, Ilma� „Laudatio auf Karl-Markus Gauß zur Verleihung des Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Preises 2010�“ www.deutscheakademie.de. Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, n�d� Web� 27 Jan� 2019� —� „Eindrücke und Pausengespräche�“ Europa schreibt: Was ist das Europäische an den Literaturen Europas? Essays aus 33 europäischen Ländern. 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Ed� Silke Horstkotte and Leonhard Herrmann� Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013� 115—37� Sturm-Trigonakis� Global playing in der Literatur: Ein Versuch über die Neue Weltliteratur� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2007� Weidenfeld, Werner, and Wolfgang Wessels, eds� Europa von A bis Z: Taschenbuch der europäischen Integration� Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2001� Wetenkamp, Lena� „Europa als Palimpsest, Netz, Inventar: Ilma Rakusas Erzählverfahren in Mehr Meer�“ Europa? Zur Kulturgeschichte einer Idee. Ed� Tomislav Zelić et al� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2015� 249—61� —� Europa erzählt, verortet, erinnert: Europa-Diskurse in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017� Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 257 Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe Anke S� Biendarra University of California, Irvine Abstract: The essay analyzes recent responses by intellectuals to the discourse of “crisis” concerning Europe’s unity and its future, which has been dominating discussions about the European project� It first surveys the European Writers Conference held in Berlin in 2014 and interprets its Manifesto, then analyzes a series of letter exchanges between European authors that was published in 2016-17� Both of these endeavors, which have involved about sixty writers from inside and outside of the E�U�, give insight into how intellectuals view the current state of Europe and how they configure what might be called a European cultural identity in the twenty-first century� Through a dialogue that promotes the significance of a public sphere in and about Europe, the projects showcase the difference between political and cultural discourse� They are read here as an attempt to reestablish a European Republic of Letters that should play a prominent role in the continuation and reorientation of the European cultural project� Keywords: European public sphere, Europe’s future, European Writers Conference, letter exchange FRAGILE “Europa geht bergab, und am Ende ist immer das Meer” 1 In the summer of 2003, the literary journal Literaturen, which in the aughts was considered Germany’s most influential popular literary publication, published an issue whose topical focus was on Europa. Schöne alte Welt� On the occasion of then U�S� Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s haughty comments about a sclerotic and old-fashioned “Old Europe,” the editorial staff - Sigrid Löffler and Hanna Leitgeb among them - asked a number of writers about their personal views on Europe and its current condition� 2 In this moment, just after the U�S� 258 Anke S� Biendarra invasion of Iraq and ahead of the Eastern expansion of the European Union in 2004, most writers focused on the role of the United States and on Europe’s attempts to find its role in a changing field of power� Yet despite singularly negative comments such as Peter Handke’s “Europa? Es war einmal,” most expressed confidence and hope about a more unified future of common European interests� Historian Hans Mommsen even spoke of an already existing “europäisches Solidaritätsbewusstsein” and predicted that national interests would now take a back seat in favor of European values� Fast forward fifteen years, and Europe seems once again dazed and disoriented, both about its current state and its future� In a time of extraordinary uncertainty about the sustainability of the European project and ongoing turmoil in the political landscape of the E�U� (a rise of nationalist and neofascist discourses across the continent, England’s Brexit, Spain’s separatist movements, France’s gilet jaunes protests of Emmanuel Macron’s policies, to name just a few of the pressing issues du jour in 2019), all European values and ideologies seem to have come under scrutiny� Even achievements that were once considered indisputably positive, such as mobility and open borders within the Schengen zone, are now being questioned or have already been retracted� 3 Quite contrary to Mommsen’s prediction in 2003, national interests dominate European politics as of late, cementing the impression that “crisis” is the predominant mode that drives current discussions about the state of Europe and its future� 4 This essay illuminates some recent responses by intellectuals to this discourse of crisis� Focused on different genres of public speech, it first surveys the European Writers Conference that was held in Berlin in 2014 and interprets its Manifesto� 5 Second, it analyzes a series of online letter exchanges between European authors under the heading “FRAGILE� Europäische Korrespondenzen,” in which fourteen German-language writers entered into a dialogue with a partner� 6 In a time of doubt about European values and ideologies, these cultural projects give insight into how intellectuals view the current state of the European project� Do they still imagine Europe as a model that could reflect back upon contemporary societies and influence or even change them? How do they view their own role and engagement for the European idea? In my reading, these intellectual engagements emerge as a contemporary version on the idea of Habermas’ public sphere, as an imaginary community in which “political participation is enacted through the medium of talk,” in an arena of discursive interaction and democratic practice, as Nancy Fraser put it (110)� Along the same lines, they prove to be an important avenue to counteract the “democratic deficit” that has plagued the E�U� since its inception� The exchanges performed here thus participate not only in the formation of political will (“politische Willensbildung des Volkes,” a phrase used in Article 21 of the Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 259 German Basic Law) but also encourage a dialogue that ultimately promotes a more diverse public sphere� Finally, these projects delineate a development: from a discourse of hopeful skepticism in the early aughts to one of outright despair about the state of Europe at the end of the first two decades of the millennium� In contemporary literature written in Europe, similarities in topics and motives are plentiful� Yet this might be not so much a sign of a European, rather than of an international prose literature that often locates the global in the local and vice versa� For example, in recent novels that focus on the experience of refugees in various European countries, one finds an engagement with many of the issues that dominate current debates in Europe and the United States� Topics such as racism, the civil rights of refugees, or religious belonging and tolerance are rendered in novels such as Jenny Erpenbeck’s gehen, ging, gegangen (2015) and Abbhas Khider’s Ohrfeige (2015) in Germany, Shumona Sinha’s Assomons les pauvres! (2011; transl� Erschlagt die Armen! 2015) in France or Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017) in England� So while comparable interests do exist in the literary public spheres of Europe, this fact alone does not delineate a shared cultural present� In order to map European literatures as European, one needs to identify and analyze what Christoph Parry has called transnational structures and horizons within literary production (50—51), and the projects introduced here signify just that, as my analysis will show� Within a taxonomy of European literatures, the documents analyzed in this essay fall within a heuristic category that one could call ‘a discourse on or about Europe�’ It comprises texts in which Europe figures prominently as a space or topic (Ivanovic 36), as well as texts that either seek to categorize Europe or comment critically on it� Naturally, this category is permeable and not limited to European authors or texts written on the continent, as Paul Michael Lützeler and other scholars have shown in their documentations of the literary discourse about Europe� 7 One basic tenet that defines this category and the debates I am pursuing pertains to the ways in which culture and literature produce a form of knowledge that due to its focus on aesthetics is not oriented toward a defined goal, yet still specific and helpful in its potential “normative Formen von Lebenspraxis und Lebensvollzug nicht nur in Szene zu setzen, sondern auch performativ […] zur Disposition zu stellen” (Ette 13)� In this context, it becomes clear that literature has a central function in the development of a European identity and that its creators have been assigned a constructive role in imagining it� The idea of the European Writers Conference harks back to 1988, when a number of eminent writers convened in Berlin to discuss the topic Ein Traum 260 Anke S� Biendarra von Europa and reflected on the question how the division of Europe along an East-West axis could be overcome� A year later of course, the Berlin Wall fell unexpectedly, and the Iron Curtain came down in its wake, leading to the eventual accession of many Central and Eastern European countries to the E�U� Twenty-five years later, in 2014, a group of writers revived the idea of an international writers’ conference - this time entitled Traum und Wirklichkeit - to congregate again in Berlin� On the initiative of authors Tilman Spengler, Nicol Ljubić, Mely Kiyak, Antje Rávic Strubel and then SPD party leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier, thirty authors from twenty-four countries met to discuss the current state of Europe, how populism and nationalism are threatening the European idea, what writers could do for Europe, and what role literature could play in the European cultural consciousness� In this context, it was important to the organizers “unsere Gedanken zu Europa nicht an den Grenzen der Europäischen Union enden zu lassen, sondern unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf die Peripherie zu lenken” (Ljubić, Traum 9) and to include as many authors as possible from outside of the E�U�, in order to showcase their own perception of the “periphery” and to point out that “Europas kulturelle Realitäten sind nicht deckungsgleich mit Europas politischen Realitäten” (28)� The conference was an attempt to establish an ongoing conversation among authors, both about the dreams they might have for a European future and Europe’s political realities� The first day of the gathering, which not coincidentally fell on May 8, 2014 and thus the sixty-ninth anniversary of the end of World War Two, comprised four panels and ended with the “Long Night of European Literature” at the Deutsches Theater where ten of the invited writers read from their works and presented a common “Manifest�” 8 Analyzing a number of recent manifestos on the topic of Europe, John H� Smith notes that “a vision is not worth anything if it is not made manifest” (10)� In his essay, he describes their “imperative mood” and the underlying fundamental questions that attempt to sketch “a Europe that can move radically beyond […] even a mere collection of nation states” (11)� Given this interpretation and the surge of recent manifestos that have been discussed animatedly in the public sphere - for example, Stéphane Hessel’s widely read Indignez-vous! (2010) or the “Manifest für die Begründung einer europäischen Republik” (2013) by Robert Menasse and Ulrike Guérot - it is not surprising that the European Writers Conference also aimed for a tangible outcome of the gathering, beyond the videos archived online and a documentation in book form� Yet this Manifesto is an unusual document� Generally, manifestos present the basic tenets of a group, often in an attempt to demarcate the members’ ideas critically from those of others� Many also contain a public declaration of goals, a shared vision or an appeal to political action (Spörl)� Here, however, Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 261 the organizers opted for individual texts of varying lengths and poetic measure instead of one carefully composed appeal� We find a range of literary genres, from statements of one sentence to poems to short stories� Many of the texts use metaphors and images to make the abstract concept of ‘Europe’ more legible for the audience� For example, Croatian poet Ivana Simić Bodrožić writes about the European family and reminds us that Europe extends far beyond the political borders of the E�U�: “Europa ist der reiche Onkel aus Berlin und die hübsche Tante aus Frankreich� Europa ist der exzentrische Cousin aus Amsterdam� Europa bleibt bis zum Beweis des Gegenteils (meist in der privaten Beziehung) ein Stereotyp� Die Mitte Europas liegt in Bosnien-Herzegovina, im Kosovo, auf der Krim und in der Ukraine” (Ljubić, Traum 161)� To really understand what today’s Europe entails, a bird’s-eye perspective is helpful; Europeans tend not to know what Europe is “weil zuviel Deutschland, Slowenien, zuviel Ukraine und Bosnien im Weg stehen,” according to Slowenian author Goran Vojnović (161)� Many of the writers are critical of Europe, such as Romanian Nicoleta Esinencu who writes “Fuck you, Europa / Europa - American Dream / Europa - Freiheit auf Raten” (159)� Others take a more lighthearted approach, like Dane Janne Teller in her poem “Liebe Welt, küsse einen Europäer, die brauchen das� / Liebes Europa, küsse die Welt, du brauchst es” (161)� Overall though, one can group the contributions roughly into four categories - political, literary, polemical, and humorous� There are some openly political statements, but strangely only a few that comment explicitly on the domain of literature and culture� The ‘European quality’ of these varied texts lies precisely in the range of topics and forms, as well as in a constant reflection of the Eurocentrism of the European project� As such, it is possible to read the Manifesto as a literary manifestation of what Christine Ivanovic has called “europäische Schreibweise�” 9 All superordinate concepts addressed in the Manifesto are anchored in the political sphere, even if culture as a reference point remains important in many of the individual texts� In the following graphic, I have extrapolated common thematical strands that link the texts and abstracted superordinate terms from them, in an attempt to analyze further the diverse ideas that make up the Manifest� The concepts are in order of descending frequency of mention� 262 Anke S� Biendarra Given the primary identity of the contributors as writers and artists, the subordination of “culture” and “tradition” is surprising� Yet it also pointedly reveals how discussions of European cultural identities are concurrently rooted in the political� While the political discourse in the public sphere contributes most to this, another reason might be the historical understanding of the E�U� The project of European integration, frequently referenced in the Manifesto, was primarily a political peace project that sought to prevent future European wars� Winston Churchill, in his famous 1946 Zurich speech, declared that the “re-creation of the European family” and “a structure under which it can dwell in peace, safety and freedom” was the remedy that would transform a “tormented, hungry, careworn” continent into something “as free and happy as Switzerland�” (8) It is often overlooked that the focus on European integration with a view to the development of a balanced, supranational economy was not a primary focus until the 1950s, beginning with the Paris Treaty that came into effect in July 1953 (Vergara)� The institutional framing of the European Writers Conference could also have steered the attending writers towards political notions� Even though the organizers stress that Frank-Walter Steinmeier participated in the original planning not in his later role as foreign minister (and now the German President) but as party leader of the SPD (Ljubić, Traum 8 and 15), his involvement, both in the planning phase and later as a keynote speaker lent the events both clout and general interest, which is documented in the large media echo both the 2014 and 2016 conferences generated� 10 At least in 2014, the interdependence of the German paradigm Geist und Macht was also augmented by Geld, when the Alfred-Herrhausen-Gesellschaft, i�e�, the International Forum of Deutsche Bank, Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 263 sponsored the event and provided the location in its offices Unter den Linden in Berlin� 11 In the concluding discussion with two of the organizers, Michael Naumann, former state minister of culture and media under then chancellor Gerhard Schröder, criticized the tone of melancholia and the absence of the notion of freedom writ large from the 2014 Manifesto� Naumann questioned whether Europe was “ein abgeschriebenes Projekt” and implied that its potential to generate dreams and excitement seemed limited for the writers who were present� And indeed, many of the contributions are unemotional and seem restrained� I would argue, however, that the fact that ‘freedom’ is not addressed as a central category has to do with generational differences between Naumann (who was born in 1941) and the predominantly younger generation of authors present at the event, many of whom were born in the 1970s and thus do not share the experience of World War Two and the Holocaust that shaped Naumann’s generation� Many of the younger writers did, however, live through both the division of Europe under communism and the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s� For this reason and due to the Crimea crisis that developed concurrently to the 2014 conference, notions of “democracy” and “opportunities” are writ large in the Manifesto, as my graphic rendering illustrates� The conceptual pair that features most prominently in my graphic is that of “center” and “periphery,” which is closely entwined with “borders” and “freedom,” even if “freedom” is only used a couple of times verbatim, as Naumann noted� Faruk Šehić (born in 1970 in Bosnia) comments first on the geographical and cultural realm of Europe and its customs, myths, and narratives, before noting: “Heute ist der Begriff Europa verbunden mit der Europäischen Union, und der gegenüber stehen wir vom Balkan auf der ärmeren Seite der mit Stacheldraht gesicherten Grenze� Für uns stellt die Idee des vereinten Europas eine Art Himmel auf Erden dar� […] Insofern sollten wir uns wohl glücklich schätzen, dass wir von drittklassigen zu zweitklassigen Europäern aufgestiegen sind” (Ljubić, Traum 158, trans� Brigitte Döbert)� The notion of “being less than” that Šehić expresses is, I would argue, centrally linked to the tension between center and periphery that has characterized the European experience throughout the twentieth century 12 and continues to vex the E�U� “Center” and “periphery” also map neatly onto recurring themes in the attempt to define Europe and its social and cultural identities� The conceptual pair echoes Jürgen Habermas’ and Jacques Derrida’s 2003 invocation of an “avant-gardist core Europe,” a vision in which the western European nations act as leading “locomotive” (292) for a lagging, second-class eastern and southern periphery� In the context of the politics of austerity that Germany in particular prescribed for the E�U�’s weaker partners after the economic crisis of 2008, the 264 Anke S� Biendarra always existing North-South divide sharpened� The same can be said of the East-West divide that has become in some ways even more prominent with the E.U.-Osterweiterung in 2004 and 2007, which brought twelve former communist countries into the European community� Today, the question whether the E�U� should give up negotiations with Turkey about its accession in light of ongoing human-rights violations or how to reason with countries such as Hungary and Poland that deliberately ignore E�U� policies (for example on environmental regulations and the equal distribution of refugees) play a central role in mapping this political transnational horizon� Maja Haderlap (born in 1961 in Carinthia) echoes this in her contribution to the Manifesto: “Meine frühe Europa-Erfahrung - langes Warten an den Grenzen� Meine neue Erfahrung - die Grenzen sind offen, aber Europa ist begrenzt” (Ljubić, Traum 154)� Especially writers hailing from Central and Eastern Europe feel the continuing unequal distribution on the map of Europe of the scarce resource ‘attention’ and the extent to which mutual perceptions are still distorted by ignorance, misplaced expectations, and clichés that authors are supposed to fulfill in order to catapult them from the periphery into a globalized literary marketplace: “Ständig auf Reisen, hatte ich nicht bemerkt, dass mir das Etikett Made in Balkan anhaftete� […] [I]ch übersah die festgelegten Codes zwischen kulturellem Zentrum und Peripherie� Man erwartete von mir, dass ich die Stereotype über die Peripherie bestätigte und nicht, dass ich sie zerschlug,” (343) writes Dubravka Ugrešić (born in 1949 in Croatia) in the volume Europa schreibt, which has similar goals as the Writers Conference. Taken as a whole, the Manifesto mirrors both the plurality and the fragmentation that characterize the contemporary state of Europe� The European project, despite recurring prophecies of its impending collapse, is still very much in the process of determining its profile, as the searching texts of thirty diverse writers showcase� The Manifesto illuminates how the European continent is crisscrossed by visible and invisible conflicts about politics, language, and cultures� Especially the many contributions of writers on the so-called periphery highlight that they in fact designate the “center” of Europe, not least for historical reasons� 13 FRAGILE is the second project that interests me, due to its transnational approach to the state of contemporary Europe� It originated with the director of the Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Stefanie Stegman, whose idea then was taken up by the network of the German-language Literaturhäuser, which also encompasses Vienna and Zurich� The project emanated from general observations in Germany and in Europe at large, as formulated in the funding application: “Die aktuellen kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen der Ukraine und Russ- Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 265 land auf den Spuren der kalten Kriegswege des 20� Jahrhunderts, das Ringen um Zuwanderungspolitik, nationalistische Strömungen und ausgrenzende und islamfeindliche Bewegungen wie Pegida sind nur einige Beispiele des 21� Jahrhunderts, die das Spannungsverhältnis aus Stabilität und Fragilität zum Ausdruck bringen�” Conceptualized to allow for “Entschleunigung, Dialog, das langsame Verfassen der Gedanken beim Sprechen bzw� hier Schreiben in Form einer alten Tradition des Briefeschreibens” (Stegman via e-mail), each of the fourteen centers was able to pick one German-language author of their choice who in turn selected a colleague from another country� In a multi-month exchange of a number of personal letters, the writers entered into a dialogue about topics of social, cultural, and political significance, thereby creating a veritable “Themenkaleidoskop�” 14 The letters first appeared online at www�fragile-europe�net and a sizable selection was subsequently published in 2017 under the title Interessante Zeiten, könnte man sagen. FRAGILE: Europäische Korrespondenzen in the journal Die Horen� 15 Less than half of the writers knew each other beforehand or had met in person, and a difference in tone and intimacy is palpable for those who were actually acquainted or friends� 16 The resulting circle of twenty-eight extends beyond the European Union, entailing Switzerland, Ukraine, Turkey and Israel; the project organizers consciously aimed to also include authors from countries where belonging to Europe is probed critically� Of course, the fact that half of the participating writers are German-language writers and that the accompanying public readings of the letters took place only in Germany adds reservations to the label of truly “European” correspondences� That the publicly funded German network of Literaturhäuser conceived of and developed the project does not strike me as coincidental� Rather, it echoes the eagerness of many intellectuals to look outward and focus on Europeanness rather than Germanness� This is rooted in the psychological desire of many Germans to prove their cosmopolitan openness and global perspective in light of the country’s often monstrous history� Yet cosmopolitan and E�U�-friendly perspectives are nowadays also sometimes interpreted as problematic, especially by the political right� 17 The participating authors were entirely free in their choice of topics; they could look back at the twentieth century or envision the utopian or real futures of a modified “Versuchsanordnung Europas�” Consequently, and as one would expect, the topics of the letters are wide-ranging and difficult to summarize; add to this that the printed collection FRAGILE comprises over 300 pages� In their open and creative occupation with the contemporary, the writers appear as “Seismographen der Stimmungen und Diskussionen, die Europa beschäftigen” (https: / / www�literaturhaus�net/ projekte/ fragile) and thus as public intellectuals in the European tradition who produce meaning from complexity and mediate 266 Anke S� Biendarra it through the public sphere� The result of these exchanges is best described as creating dialogue and community; the selection analyzed here centers on the current crises Europe has been experiencing since 2015 and identifies a discussion of European values as the important red thread� The FRAGILE project was generously supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung; the remaining funds came from the Network of the German Literaturhäuser and the budget of the individual institutions� Interestingly, there was no funding for this European project from E�U� institutions; when asked about this, Ursula Steffens, director of the Network, indicated that the project had been deemed “not political enough” for the Council of Europe and too small for a funding application to an initiative such as Creative Europe, the €1�46 billion EU program (2014—20) for the cultural and creative sectors of the member countries (via e-mail)� Exchanging personal letters seems curious in times when much of public communication is digital� Since electronic mail and short messaging services are now ubiquitous, letters have lost their status as the primary form of private communication� Consequently, the epistolary mode has become increasingly rare and is often looked at as anachronistic and old-fashioned� Yet the project’s organizers chose the genre specifically as a conscious attempt to counteract the speed and furor with which exchanges often happen in the public sphere: “Konzentrieren sich Essays stärker auf die Entwicklung eines Gedankens, so nehmen Briefe aufeinander Bezug, verwerfen, pointieren und profitieren in Abgrenzung oder Ergänzung im besten Sinne voneinander� Briefe […] setzen zudem einen reibenden Kontrapunkt im vielfach reflexhaften Öffentlichmachen schnell formulierter Gedanken” (FRAGILE funding application, via e-mail)� The project eventually went online on the Network’s website literaturhaus�net where all letters were also available in English, thus providing free accessibility across linguistic and national borders� That selected letters also appeared in print form in Die Horen, one of Germany’s oldest literary journals, not even a year later, is not only a concession to the way literary publishing still works in the twenty-first century, but also a public claim that indicates the project’s cultural relevance� Many of the writers welcomed the rediscovery of an “entschleunigtes Medium” (FRAGILE project website), arguing that it can better allow for reflection, summary, and careful articulation of ideas ( Jan Wagner, 17), even if some find it strange to write to one another “unter öffentlicher Aufsicht” (Ingo Schulze, 93)� Antje Rávic Strubel concedes that “öffentliches Sprechen als privaten Briefwechsel zu inszenieren ist tricky” and attributes her own not entirely conflict-free exchange with Swede Lena Andersson partly to the specific setup of the project, which includes a public performance of political questions (62—63)� Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 267 Yet others celebrate the attempt to display changing perceptions and attitudes over a longer period of time because “in diesen Dialogen bilden sich auch Prozesse ab, nicht nur Ergebnisse” (Ruth Schweikert, 211)� Going even further, Karl-Markus Gauß and his Yugoslavian colleague Dževad Karahasan attribute what Joan C� Tronto would call an “ethic of care” to the medium� Composing a letter without a concrete reason or goal that does not have an immediate practical significance makes it possible to truly recognize the other person, “’Ich sehe dich, ich weiß von dir, ich wende mich an dich und verwirkliche mich dadurch als Subjekt, und dabei bezeuge ich, dass du anwesend bist und es dich gibt�’ Gibt es etwas Wichtigeres als das…? ” (Karahasan, 150)� The form of mediation entailed in letter writing is dialogic; an imagined conversation with an Other as well as a soliloquy both foster an ethics of intersubjectivity through which difficult questions can be communicated� 18 Writing letters makes it possible to appreciate the other while drafting one’s own identity and, in reference to Jean Améry, to constitute oneself (“Selbstkonstitution”; Gauß, 149)� Karahan likens letter writing to verbal communication and mourns the lack of “Gesprächskultur” and dialogical process that technology and digital communication have disrupted� From their conversation about the disappeared art of letter writing, both Gauß and Karahasan establish a link to the culture of the classic European Kaffeehaus� They identify it as a locus of cultural practices dependent upon leisurely conversation and intellectual exchange� Karahan writes eloquently about old cafés in Paris and Vienna and local differences in the ways they facilitated interaction, before comparing them to a former preferred meeting point in Sarajevo, fittingly called Hotel Evropa� Destroyed by artillery bombings in July 1992, reopened after the war in Yugoslavia and now characterized by efficiency and “globalisierte anonyme Bequemlichkeit” (Karahan, 158), this café becomes a metaphor for a European culture that is threatened, if it has not already disappeared entirely� What primarily grounds all of the conversations - and was, according to Stefanie Stegmann, one important spark for the FRAGILE project - is the socalled refugee crisis of 2015, during which more than 1�25 million people fled to Europe from war-torn countries� 19 The focus of the letters is then overtaken by the Brexit vote in June 2016, another momentous event that has shaken notions of European cohesion to the core� Another easily identifiable point of discussion is the surge of nationalism and xenophobia, which is concretized in the rise of right-wing political forces worldwide� Even when these phenomena are not directly addressed as topics of discussion, anxiety about them is palpable throughout� Fittingly, the notion of “fragility” provides the metaphorical framework to discuss topics that are precious to the participating writers: “Was in Europa ist 268 Anke S� Biendarra so kostbar, dass es geschützt werden muss? Was droht zu zerbrechen? […] Was ist bereits zerstört? ” summarizes the project’s questions (Fragile 2)� FRAGILE shows the continent as a “Zusammenhang an Ausstiegsphantasien” as Kathrin Röggla calls it in a letter to Scottish writer A�L� Kennedy (Fragile 68) and illustrates that contemporary Europe is indeed fragile, and, once again, in crisis� On the other hand, crisis is also a product of discourses, performance, and narration; a process in which a complex system experiences a disruption that cannot be explained entirely by rational thought� In other words, crisis and literature stand in a reciprocal relationship; crisis needs narration in order to be recognized as crisis: “Europa produziert Krisen und Erzählungen, und es ist Produkt beider” (Kläger and Wagner-Egelhaaf 10)� The above-mentioned crises, i�e�, concrete events and the ensuing political realities in various countries, provide most of the fodder for the writers’ conversations and they were also the first organizing principle in my reading of what amounts to more than one hundred (fairly long) letters� Since it is not possible to do justice to all of the ideas, opinions, and nuances of discussion expressed in them, I have attempted to excavate the overarching ideas of the contributions� These, I argue, center primarily on European values, which provide the conceptual framework and the selection criterion for the following readings� The values I refer to are generally thought of as those summarized in Article Two of the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) - human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law - as well as in the E�U� Charter of Fundamental Rights� 20 While acceptance of these values ground the discussions in FRAGILE and are sometimes even explicitly discussed (cf� Lena Andersson on notions of freedom, 61), I would argue that they are furthermore oriented by complex notions of humanism, rationality, tolerance, and secularity that were first developed in the European Enlightenment and have come to be accepted as universal rights� One is reminded of Ernst Robert Curtius’ understanding who argued in 1932 that humanism implies intellectual exchange within European borders in reference to a common tradition (Kraume 20)� These values provide the basis for a modern understanding of different European identities that nevertheless share a common core and allow community building across national borders, as referenced in the official motto of the E�U�, “United in Diversity�” For many of the writers, an exchange with colleagues is an opportunity to discuss these European values as much as it is a therapeutic outlet� The process of writing becomes a means to make sense of what is happening in real time, “Aber jeden Tag brechen neue Nachrichten herein� Immer erschreckender […]” (Carmen-Francesca Banciu, 288)� In light of harrowing news of difficult to process events in 2016, most of the letters are infused with feelings of confusion, worry, helplessness or outright anxiety, “Alarmismus, Katastrophenstimmung, Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 269 etc�” (Kathrin Röggla, 77), as well as an opportunity to voice anxieties, shared by many of the writers, that common values are increasingly replaced by hatred and xenophobia: “Werte wie Empathie, Liebe, Großzügigkeit, Barmherzigkeit und Klugheit sind fragil� […] Und in meinem Land gibt es viele Menschen, die so viel Hass in sich tragen, dass der Schritt zum Morden nicht mehr groß ist� Wie schaffen wir es, ihnen den Hass auf sich selbst zu nehmen, die Angst vor dem Fragilen? ” (Björn Bicker, 228)� Similarly, for Annika Reich, who chose to correspond with Israeli colleague Zeruya Shalev, ‘Europe’ has become so fraught that she felt unable to continue her work as a literary writer� She experienced a breakdown in the wake of European reactions to the refugee crisis and her personal work with refugees in Berlin� 21 When writing in her letter “Die Festung Europa ist ein Zusammenbruch” (174), she comments specifically on the E�U�-Turkey agreement of March 2016, i�e�, the political decision to involve Turkey in the control of access for refugees to the E�U� 22 Reich interprets this deal as a betrayal of European values - knowledge, respect for the individual, doubting and questioning (178) - and a move towards seeing refugees as an anonymous mass that no longer warrants individual solutions: “All das, worauf die Europäer so stolz sind: unsere Aufklärung und unsere Demokratiegeschichte, unseren [sic] Humanismus und unsere Weltoffenheit, ertrinkt gerade mit den fliehenden Menschen im Mittelmeer” (186)� 23 Reich unmasks the belief that previously expressed values are an unalienable right as “Europas blinden Fleck�” Her letters illustrate the searching for new European narratives that others, such as Kathrin Röggla (68), Ruth Schweikert (217) and Niko Madzirov (13) also comment on; ever-changing narratives that acknowledge the structural racism prevalent on the continent throughout its history and rewrite it by stripping away an exclusively white, Christian tradition� Zeruya Shalev’s answers, composed from the position of someone who has lived the volatile reality of Israel, prove crucial in providing a different perspective for her despondent German friend� Shalev reminds Reich that individuals do have personal agency and can improve a seemingly desperate situation; she suggests that her own involvement in a project that encourages peaceful cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian women (Women Wage Peace) might serve as an example for a similar exchange between refuges and xenophobic, right-wing women specifically in Germany� In a later letter from February 2017, written after the official end of the project and the inauguration of Donald Trump (which she interprets as an attack on democracy), Reich comes back to these ideas and develops the notion of performative citizenship, by which she understands small, yet concrete personal acts of political engagement in order to enact the rights bestowed by the state upon its citizens� 24 The realization that the 270 Anke S� Biendarra individual is not powerless but can make a difference also serves as an important reinforcement for Reich’s literary work� She realizes that the fragility she experiences with regard to European values that has now settled in her body also provides an opportunity to make the individual the center of her novelistic work again, in order to understand something more general about humankind� The exchange between Reich and Shalev thus updates the notion that the political is personal and vice versa and puts a premium on the contributions that especially women can make in the face of what Reich polemically calls the “Israelisierung der europäischen Lebensrealität” (187), by which she primarily refers to the fear of terrorist attacks in Europe� Some writers specifically address the question of religious tolerance that is a central European ideal yet might be the most volatile in light of increased xenophobia� In their exchange, Swiss writer Ruth Schweikert and French-Jewish writer Cécile Wajsbrot comment on how different European countries have reacted to the threat of Islamic terrorism after numerous attacks that especially France and England have experienced since 2015� Increased and widespread surveillance and the continued renewal of the state of emergency in France have led to a lack of privacy and room to act for the individual (Schweikert, 213); they also bolster the linguistic rearmament that suggests that Western societies are at war once again (Wajsbrot, 205)� The ensuing violence is increasingly directed towards Others, especially Muslims, and plays out in the urban landscape both in personal interactions and in the camps that have sprung up in European capitals around homeless people and refuges, only then to be dismantled again by the authorities� 25 In these discussions, Wajsbrot paints an almost apocalyptic vision of French society lacking solidarity or a sense of community; she sees this as a metaphor for the dangers Europe faces as a whole: “Die Gesellschaft zerfällt, Europa zerfällt, Mauern ersetzen allmählich die Brücken” (209)� Wajsbrot also opens up important historical perspectives when she argues that Europe after World War Two was founded too much on the past and the doctrine “Nie wieder Krieg! ” and did not develop a viable plan for its own future� This, she finds, has hollowed out any shared European vision we might have started with� Similarly, she makes the observation that the end of the Cold War was a missed chance for the European project� Instead of capitalizing on the sense of excitement and departure in Eastern Europe and quickly allowing accession, the E�U� delayed it for economic reasons� When countries finally joined, the belief in ‘Europe’ had waned in many countries, not least because a common perspective on the continent’s history was not developed� This is an interesting thought; the construction of the House of European History (cf� Eigler’s essay in this volume) as a transnational elite project supposed to foster a dialogue on European identity seems to validate, rather than disprove, Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 271 Wajsbrot’s misgivings� Many scholars also echo her comment that a missing awareness of a shared history threatens European integration; they add that an asymmetry of memories exists between Western Europe (dominated by the memory of the Holocaust) and Eastern Europe (dominated by the memory of the Gulag), which further impedes a shared European identity (cf� Assmann)� One should also mention here the aspect of the wars in the Balkans, which are an important point of reference in FRAGILE as well� Austrian Karl-Markus Gauß, for example, views the break in civilization that the bloodiest conflicts since World War Two and the massacre of Srebrenica in particular signify as the writing on the wall for the regions, nations, and states of Europe and the E�U� (155)� This is less about concrete possible conflicts, but more about the anger and criticism leveled against the E�U� that is prevalent especially in Central and Eastern Europe� Constructing a shared European identity depends crucially on including and deepening memories and perspectives that focus not just on the center, but also on the periphery, as Claus Leggewie and others have argued and as we have seen in the earlier discussion of the Manifesto of the European Writers Conference� Apart from discussing European values and the continent’s more recent history, the letter exchanges frequently revolve around the role of the writer and the significance of art and more specifically, literature, for European integration� Many of the recorded statements link up with a common understanding of writers as intellectuals who are engaged in public discourse, use their specialized knowledge for the greater good and do not shy away from taking a moral stance� When Wajsbrot writes, “[D]er Schriftsteller ist ein Leuchtturmwärter, der von seinem Turm aus Wache hält […] und als Erster jenes Boot entdeckt, das Schiffbruch erleiden wird� […] [E]r schlägt Alarm, in der Hoffnung gehört zu werden” (209), she references ideas commonly associated with the figure of the classic public intellectual that, starting with Jean-Paul Sartre’s Qu’est-ce que la littérature? (1948), were discussed for the better part of the twentieth century, especially in the context of (French) philosophy and sociology, and more recently in numerous debates among German writers in the aughts� 26 Common tropes about the writer as singular, critical, and independent of the political positions du jour who takes a moral stance when necessary are complemented here by ideas about the role of literature as an updated version of littérature engagée. Dissident, engaged literature needs to have a referent in non-literary matters while insisting upon its own artistic characteristics, which it generally expresses through its formal choices� 27 In her exchange with Kathrin Röggla, A�L� Kennedy implicitly references these ideas� She posits that art is indispensable as a fundamental defense of humanity that insists upon the irreplaceability of the human experience (“Migranten” 4, 5)� In her letters to Röggla, 272 Anke S� Biendarra she references (Christian) notions of love for the Other that must ground all current and future artistic activity: “Anstatt beispielsweise nur für uns selbst zu schreiben, schreiben wir für uns und die Liebe anderer” (Fragile 72)� She also puts a premium on new technologies that have a democratizing potential and expresses her belief that the artist really is at the forefront of a necessary new social movement that resists discourses of xenophobia, racism, and isolationism: “Wir haben Macht� Wir können sie nutzen� Und wir haben Phantasie, […] die Nutzung sozialer Medien zur Förderung von Freiheit und Transparenz […]” (72; cf� also 74)� This reads like a realization of Arjun Appadurai’s analysis in Modernity at Large, who argued that new developments in electronic technologies and mass migration were creating “a new role for the imagination in social life,” namely “a social practice” (31) - and would eventually disrupt known parameters that previously defined both notions of the national and community� The emphasis on community and on similarity over alterity links A�L� Kennedy’s assessment to that of Björn Bicker who insists in an emotional exchange with Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran that in a post-9/ 11 world everything is linked and must be analyzed in larger transnational contexts: “Weil alles so kompliziert ist und ich nun, mit 46 Jahren, das erste Mal wirklich verstanden habe, […] [d]ass es kein kleines und kein großes Leid gibt, sondern nur unser gemeinsames Leid� Dass diese ganze Fragilität unserer Welt unsere gemeinsame Fragilität ist� […] Die Grenzen sind meine Grenzen� Die Toten sind meine Toten” (Fragile 234)� This is also echoed in the exchange between Carmen-Francesca Banciu and Mirela Ivanova who see themselves as individuals and simultaneously and consciously as part of a larger European civilization: “Es trifft uns alle” (289)� These emphatic iterations of a shared personal and European fate might provide the most persuasive reorientation of the discourse of “crisis” that dominates the letter exchange overall; one is tempted to say that they serve as “critical exercises in futurity at a decisive juncture” (Adelson 218)� The letters provide perspectives that seek a way forward for European relations, thus confirming the essential role Ann Rigney and others have attributed to future-oriented collective narratives and memories for Europe� The rare project that is FRAGILE accomplishes a number of things� First, it provides the reader with eclectic and very personal impressions of both larger developments and their distinctive national characteristics� From the fear of terrorism and increased surveillance in Western Europe to the specter of Brexit and further exit movements, to the rise of authoritarian rule in Turkey (cf� Ece Temelkuran), Hungary (cf� László Györi), and Russia (cf� Anna Schor-Tschudnowskaja), the writers’ vivid contributions add to our knowledge about the diverse cultures of contemporary Europe� The conscious decision in FRAGILE to counteract the speed and furor of public discourse in times of the internet Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 273 and social media via the epistolary genre allows for individual introspection and nuanced reflection of the current state of European affairs� Furthermore, the linguistic range inherent to the project - all writers could write in their native language and their contributions were professionally translated prior to publication - showcases the resilience that lies in linguistic and, by extension, cultural plurality� This, and the opportunity FRAGILE provided for co-creation and collaboration can be read as a vigorous attempt to dispel the discourse of crisis via new models of aesthetic engagement� Theoretical reflections by intellectuals about the continent have a long tradition that spans from Novalis, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Heinrich Mann into the twenty-first century (cf� Lützeler, Kraume, Wetenkamp)� FRAGILE and the European Writers Conference, respectively, are tied to and belong to this tradition, but they place more weight on current events and less on philosophical discourse than some of their predecessors� The underlying reason for this difference is the belief that recent events have arguably changed not just the face of Europe and the political course it currently charts but are threatening its core beliefs and values� As a result, participants in these projects are generally in agreeance that an intellectual intervention pro Europe is badly needed� While this does not amount to calls for direct political intervention (which would put literature in too close proximity to propaganda), the initiatives show how carefully authors monitor and record the changing language, the altered norms, and the questioned ideals across the continent� Furthermore, the communications analyzed here illustrate starkly the widening gap between intellectual ideas about Europe on the one hand and political realities on the other� What ensues is a discursive weighing of shared European values and an investigation into how historical precedents and developments have shaped them� Always embedded is the related discursive strand that concerns the intellectual’s engagement and the role literature and art can play in the current situation� Both FRAGILE and the European Writers Conferences thus showcase that there is indeed a difference between what one might call a “political” and a “cultural” Europe� While writers are concerned with political events and ideas and comment on them, they actually work towards a vision of Europe that takes its measures from a different realm� It appeals to building a truly open continent that is not determined by economic considerations and the rationalization of exclusion but instead, compassion for the Other and the ethical grounding of political arguments and solutions� In effect, one can read both projects as a reclaiming of Europe, as an attempt to reestablish a long atrophied European Republic of Letters, in which writers and intellectuals interact across national interests and borders on the basis of their belief in common values and 274 Anke S� Biendarra a shared humanity (cf� Jan-Werner Müller); in the process explaining developments within different national cultures to their audiences while emphasizing a common European history and consciousness: “Wir wohnen in derselben Straße” (Bicker, 225)� Notes 1 From the Manifesto of the 2016 Internationale Schriftstellerkonferenz in Berlin� Cf� Magenau� 2 Felicitas Hoppe, A�L� Kennedy, António Lobo Antunes, Javier Marias, Peter Handke, Jonathan Franzen, Per Olov Enquist, Hans Mommsen, Lars Gustafsson, Dragan Velikic, Antonio Negri, Andrzej Stasiuk, Thomas Hettche, and Louis Begley contributed to the issue of Literaturen� 3 Sweden, for example, introduced border checks on car and train traffic at the Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden, as well as ports in Varberg, Gothenburg, Malmo, Helsingborg, and Trelleborg in the fall of 2015� These controls have been increased in 2018 and now include all major airports, as well as ports in southern and central Sweden� This example illustrates how free movement is now de facto limited in the Schengen zone� 4 Of course, “crisis” has always been a mode of European existence and is thus nothing new, but actually constitutive of Europe, as Kläger and Wagner-Egelhaaf have argued� Yet current discussions seem more urgent in their amplification across various media and involve the political, social, and cultural spheres of Europe� 5 A second European Writers Conference, entitled GrenzenNiederSchreiben took place May 9—10, 2016 in Berlin at the Akademie der Künste Pariser Platz� Yet as of 2019, the online conference documentation of this gathering had disappeared� Due to the absence of a reliable documentation, my analysis centers only on the 2014 conference� 6 https: / / www�literaturhaus�net/ projekte/ fragile (last accessed April 28, 2019)� 7 On the categorization of Europe as literary category and European literature, see Ivanovic 22—36 and Wetenkamp 7—20� 8 All texts were initially made available on the conference website http: / / 2014� europaeischeschriftstellerkonferenz�eu and were subsequently published in book form in March 2015 by Nicol Ljubić and Tilman Spengler� References in the text refer to the print edition of materials� 9 “Neben dem Schreiben à la mode Européene könnte der Begriff der europäischen Schreibweise, fasst man ihn als ein bestimmtes Genre, also im genderisierten Sinne auf, in jüngerer Zeit dann auch eine diskurskritische Darstellungsform umfassen, die im Schreiben selbst ‘Europa’ und das mag Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 275 auch heißen, den unterdessen so umstrittenen Eurozentrismus des europäischen Denkens zu reflektieren sucht� So gebraucht könnte ‘Europa’ resp� ‘europäisch’ als literaturwissenschaftliche wie literaturhistorische Kategorie dazu beitragen, von der generischen Zuordnung, d� h� der sprachlich-nationalen Herkunft des Autors/ der Autorin als Bestimmungskategorie abzusehen und statt dessen die im Text jeweils zum Ausdruck gebrachte Bezugnahme auf ‘Europa’ stärker zu profilieren” (Ivanonic 36—37)� 10 When I attended the 2016 conference in Berlin, I witnessed firsthand that the attendance of foreign minister Steinmeier brought an enormous press corps to the Akademie der Künste� 11 Other sponsors were the Stiftung Mercator, the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Allianz Kulturstiftung, United Europe e� V�, Schwarzkopf-Stiftung Junges Europa, BMW Stiftung Herbert Quandt, and BMW Berlin� Interestingly, the conferences were not funded with E�U� money, such as funds from the Council of Europe� 12 For a literary rendering of the European experience between center and periphery throughout the twentieth century see Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Aller Tage Abend (2012) which I have read elsewhere as a European lieu de mémoire (Biendarra 2014)� 13 Maja Haderlap captures this in her poetological essay, “Im Licht der Sprache,” with which she opened the Ingeborg Bachmann Wettbewerb in 2014: “Die Prozesse der Assimilation, des Absterbens oder Gedeihens von Sprachen vollziehen sich oft an entlegenen Peripherien, an willkürlich gezogenen staatlichen Grenzen, die immer auch kulturelle, nationale sein möchten� Sie werden als randständig bezeichnet, zielen jedoch ins Zentrum der europäischen Kultur� Der ganze europäische Kontinent ist durchzogen von sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Sprachkonflikten, von Geschichten der Verdrängung und der Dominanz von Sprachen” (4)� 14 Part of this information comes from the funding application Stefanie Stegmann shared with me� The lineup includes Irena Brežná and Anna Schor-Tschudnowskaja; Katharina Schultens and Cristina Ali Farah; Carmen-Francesca Banciu and Mirela Ivanova; Jan Wagner and Nikola Madzirov; Martin Pollack and Yevgenia Belorusets; Annika Reich and Zeruya Shalev; Ingo Schulze and László Györi; Georg Klein and Viktor Martinowitsch; Carlo Ihde and Dana Grigorcea, Karl-Markus Gauß and Dževad Karahasan; Björn Bicker and Ece Temelkuran; Kathrin Röggla and A�L� Kennedy; Antje Rávic Strubel and Lena Andersson; Ruth Schweikert and Cécile Wajsbrot� 15 References are to the printed text, unless otherwise noted� 276 Anke S� Biendarra 16 Jan Wagner and Nikola Madzirov, Ingo Schulze and László Györi, Karl- Markus Gauß and Dževad Karahasan, Ruth Schweikert and Cécile Wajsbrot, Martin Pollack and Yevgenia Belorusets, Irene Brežná and Anna Schor-Tschudnowskaja knew each other beforehand� 17 For example, think of CDU politician Jens Spahn’s 2017 invective against “elitist hipsters” whose use of English, he argued, relegates the German language to secondary status in the country’s capital� His remarks are indicative of the ongoing debate about the role of language, history, and a German Leitkultur that is being fueled especially by the AfD� 18 By “ethics” I do not refer to normative notions of what is considered “good,” but rather to a connection between subject and object, i�e�, an ethics of alterity� Cf� Newton’s writing about Levinas who “argues that consciousness and even subjectivity follow from, are legitimated by, the ethical summons which proceeds from intersubjective encounter� Subjectivity arrives […] in the form of a responsibility toward an Other which no one else can undertake” (Newton 12)� 19 In recent years, Germany was amongst the countries that accepted the largest number of refugees, leading to months of heated debate about the country’s migration policies and domestic political unrest; the rise and success of the AfD is just one tangible outcome of these developments� See Greussing and Boomgaarden� 20 Cf� http: / / www�europarl�europa�eu/ charter/ pdf/ text_de�pdf and https: / / ec�europa�eu/ info/ aid-development-cooperation-fundamental-rights/ yourrights-eu/ eu-charter-fundamental-rights_en� 21 Reich is a co-founder of the women’s network WIR MACHEN DAS that provides legal help as well as opportunities for collaborative work between German-language and refugee artists and writers (https: / / wirmachendas� jetzt)� 22 Cf� “The Role of Turkey in the Refugee Crisis�” https: / / www�eesc�europa� eu/ en/ our-work/ opinions-information-reports/ opinions/ role-turkey-refugee-crisis (accessed 20 May 2019)� 23 Implicitly she also suggests that Germany is violating its constitution, since political asylum is a basic right guaranteed in Article 16a of the Basic Law� 24 The last two letters exchanged in 2017 are only available online: http: / / fragile-europe�net/ conversations/ annika-reich-und-zeruya-shalev/ � 25 Wajsbrot refers to “Camp Stalingrad,” named after the Paris metro station, that housed up to 4,000 people before it was cleared by French police in November 2016� 26 Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Pierre Bourdieu, François Lyotard, as well as Edward Said have all had their share in this debate� For a detailed Fragile Realities: Discussions among Writers about Contemporary Europe 277 discussion of debates around the millennium, see Chapter Two of my book Germans Going Global and Schaper’s 2017 study� 27 “Das Literarische muß als Kunst alle Freiheit und Autonomie haben, während andererseits die Gesellschaft nicht einfach als nicht zur Kunst gehörig abgewiesen werden kann […]� Engagiert ist eine Literatur, die sich nicht nur die gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse als kunsteigenes Ausdrucksmedium schafft, sondern zugleich auch in der Wahl ihrer Formen das im Medium selbst vorgefundene Formniveau kritisiert” (Wegmann 355 and 357; 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Europa-Diskurse in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017� European Cultural Memory: The European House of History and Recent Novels by Jenny Erpenbeck and Robert Menasse Friederike Eigler Georgetown University Abstract: Against the backdrop of the conceptualization of the House of European History, which opened in Brussels in 2017, this article examines literary approaches to European cultural memory by looking at two recent examples: Robert Menasse’s 2017 novel Die Hauptstadt which focuses on the European Union and the waning collective memories of World War II and the Holocaust that provided the rationale for European integration in the post-war period� By contrast, Jenny Erpenbeck’s 2015 novel Gehen, ging, gegangen challenges dominant German and European memories through the main protagonist’s encounters with refugees hailing from Europe’s “other heading” as Jacques Derrida has called the northern part of the African continent� With their contrasting outlook on the European past, Menasse and Erpenbeck envision markedly different presents and futures� Overall, this article maintains that Gehen, ging, gegangen and Die Hauptstadt serve as case studies for diverging notions of European cultural memory and, at the metalevel, as an occasion for exploring literature’s role in tackling complex constellations of European memory and identity� Keywords: European memory, literature as European site of memory, Holocaust commemoration, multi-directional memory In May of 2017, the House of European History (HEH) opened its doors in Brussels� The museum’s location in the Leopoldspark, adjacent to the Paul-Henri Spaak building of the European Parliament, is significant if not overdetermined: The park’s name refers to the first king of Belgium but it also recalls his son King Leopold II, infamous for his ruthless pursuit of colonialism in central Africa (Kongo)� The park is part of the Leopold Quarter which is today often 282 Friederike Eigler called the European Quarter, a geographical constellation that exemplifies the entanglement of European and global histories, aspects that also feature in the HEH� The museum, promoted and funded by the EU, showcases the history of European integration and the European Union but also focuses on selected aspects of European history from the French Revolution to the present� Thematically, the permanent exhibition highlights events and constellations whose legacies continue to shape the European and global present, most importantly the history of colonialism� 1 This essay is not so much concerned with the exhibition itself but instead with the long and complicated planning phase of the HEH� Some of the conceptual issues that were raised in this context, especially the museum’s historical and geographical reach, the role (and very existence) of a European identity and its relationship to transnational memory, can serve as a useful framework for the discussion of contemporary literature� Against the backdrop of the conceptualization of the HEH’s permanent exhibition, the main part of this article examines literary approaches to European cultural memory by looking at two recent but noticeably different examples: Robert Menasse’s 2017 novel Die Hauptstadt which the publisher Suhrkamp advertised as “der große europäische Roman”; its main focus is the European Union and the waning collective memories that provided the rationale for European integration after World War II� By contrast, Jenny Erpenbeck’s 2015 novel Gehen, ging, gegangen challenges dominant German and European memories through the main protagonist’s encounters with refugees from outside of Europe� Both novels received a lot of attention in the media, and both authors were recognized with awards for the important transnational issues they address not only in these novels but through other means as well� 2 In my analysis, Gehen, ging, gegangen and Die Hauptstadt serve as case studies for diverging notions of European cultural memory in contemporary German-language literature and, at the meta level, as an occasion to explore literature’s role in tackling complex constellations of European memory and identity� The museum’s name, House of European History, reveals neither the underlying geographical parameters of Europe nor the historical scope of the permanent exhibition� Instead of providing information of this kind, the term “House” suggests a shared place of belonging, a European Heimat if you will� These connotations of belonging reflect the role the academic advisory committee initially assigned to the museum, namely to strengthen a sense of transnational European identity among museum visitors (“Konzeptionelle Grundlagen”)� Along similar lines, the brief print guide to the permanent exhibition explains that the museum explores how a “cultural memory of all Europeans” emerged from the European Cultural Memory 283 shared history of Europe� The assumption that Europeans share cultural memories recalls the initial idea for the museum as formulated by Hans-Gert Pöttering, past president of the European Parliament (EP) and the longest serving EP member (1979—2014)� In his inaugural speech as president of the European Parliament in 2007, he called for a European history museum and defined its mission as shoring up European integration and European identity� As chair of the international board of trustees which oversaw the work of the academic advisory committee, Pöttering continued to be involved in the planning process� Due to the range of stakeholders and diverging interests, it took a decade for the museum to be realized (Kaiser)� When Pöttering spoke at the opening of the House of European History on May 4, 2017, ten years after the initial speech, his rationale for the museum came across as less prescriptive and more open-ended� For instance, he expressed the hope that it would promote greater understanding for the importance of fostering a European identity, and he called it a place for encounters (“ein Ort der Begegnung”) where the “idea of Europe” could be cultivated and where visitors would be encouraged to participate in the continued formation of a European identity (Pöttering 2017)� Elsewhere in the museum, and in an interview with director Constanze Itzel on the permanent exhibition, the very notions of a “European identity” and “European cultural memory” are taken for granted even less� She mentions that a critical concept of memory is one of the museum’s focal points, and this includes probing the very notion of a European memory (Itzel)� Along similar lines, chief curator Andrea Mork explains that in the exhibition planning phase “European identity” was considered as a guiding principle but ultimately rejected as a topdown and authoritarian approach� Markus Prutsch, historian and member of the European Parliament, provides context for this caution concerning the linkage of European history and “European identity�” As he explains in a EP-commissioned study on “European Historical Memory” from 2015, earlier “attempts at European identity-building” on the side of the EU proved unsuccessful because they were too narrowly focused on preconceived notions of particular aspects of European history, e�g�, the two World Wars and European integration (Prutsch 23)� The alternative, bottom-up approach he recommends would foster - via EUwide educational and cultural initiatives - not so much an agreement over the substance of European memory but rather a “European culture of remembering” by creating open arenas of discussion about contravening and uncomfortable aspects of (national) histories (37)� Along similar lines, the HEH was eventually conceptualized as a space that invites dialogue on the very question of European identity and European memory (a shift in emphasis that Pöttering clearly took to heart in his 2017 speech)� Referencing the seminal work on collective memory by Maurice Halbwachs, Pierre Nora, and Jan and Aleida Assmann, among 284 Friederike Eigler others, Mork outlines an alternative organizing principle for the exhibition: a notion of cultural memory that is not fixed but in flux, one that incorporates multiple intersecting, and at times contravening, transnational, national, and regional perspectives (220—21)� Critics have pointed out that the permanent exhibition does not live up to these nuanced and self-reflective approaches to European history and identity and that it fails to incorporate recent historiographical research on entangled European histories (Fickers)� Different kinds of critical responses came from some political representatives of EU member states and illustrated the challenges of realizing a transnational project of this caliber (Sieg 26)� High-profile critique came for instance from the Polish government which claimed that the permanent exhibition downplayed the oppressive character of Soviet Communism while portraying the role of religion and the nation in a negative light (Krupa)� Considering the fact that the Chair of the HEH’s academic advisory committee, Wlodzimierz Borodziej, is a prominent Polish historian, this critique is a reminder that national memories are by no means homogenous but the result of “memory contests” (Fuchs and Cosgrove 2) as well� Far more relevant (for the focus of this essay) than these national quibbles is the transnational perspective Katrin Sieg adopts in her comprehensive assessment of the HEH: The museum leaves behind the “triumphalist certainties” (11) and “quasi-nationalist discourse on common European and identity” (9) that marked earlier exhibitions, especially the 2007 “Europe: C’est notre Histoire” (It’s Our History) exhibit, conceptualized by the non-profit association Musée de L’Europe and, ironically, modeled on 19 th and 20 th -century National History museums� The discussions surrounding the realization of the House of European History serve to highlight central questions that are also relevant for a consideration of European literatures and their contributions to European memory� At the most fundamental level, we need to ask what notion of Europe is at play when terms like “European cultural memory” or “European identity” are invoked� The EU, primarily Western Europe, the entire European continent, or imaginary notions of Europe? Another central issue is the relationship between collective memory and European identity� As mentioned, there were attempts to promote European identity via the assertion of a shared European memory, but a more productive approach, as proposed by Itzel and Mork, thinks of “European” memory as a dynamic engagement with intersecting or competing memories� Some of these questions also inform my analysis of literature that asks how the creation of imaginary worlds participates in fostering “cultural memory” in transnational, European contexts� Scholars across Europe and the US have challenged notions of cultural memory that are bound to the nation and have instead examined European Cultural Memory 285 how memory travels (Erll), how memory functions in a multidirectional fashion (Rothberg), and how literature and the other arts have the potential for rethinking the relationship between memory, citizenship, and culture (Rigney 616)� At the same time, we need to ask in what ways any cultural production, including literature, continues to be inflected by particular national or regional histories and memories� Two recent novels by Robert Menasse and Jenny Erpenbeck serve as examples for diverging literary engagements with collective memory� Die Hauptstadt (2017) exemplifies a notion of European memory that is strongly shaped by Austrian and German history and grounded in the centrality of Holocaust commemoration� Gehen, ging, gegangen (2015), while also rooted in 20 th -century German history, opens up perspectives on communicative and collective memory that reach beyond the European continent� Menasse’s Die Hauptstadt consists of several loosely interwoven narrative strands that take place for the most part in Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union� 3 Only close to the end of the 450-page novel (on p� 394, to be exact) the reader learns of another point of reference for the title� Indeed, the novel’s main narrative arch moves toward and culminates in a surprising new meaning of “The Capital�” Overall, Menasse manages to create a suspenseful narrative around the inner workings of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, and the European Council, comprised of the heads of states of all EU members (see EU Institutions)� Narrated often in a sarcastic tone bordering at times on the satirical, the novel depicts civil servants eager to advance their own careers (EU Commission) or to protect the interests of the nations they represent (EU Council), thereby jeopardizing transnational European efforts� 4 The “Big Jubilee Project,” a plan to celebrate the Commission’s 50 th anniversary, is at the center of the novel� (This anniversary plan recalls a related project in Robert Musil’s novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, a recurring intertext and model for Menasse’s Die Hauptstadt� 5 ) Its primary function is to improve the dismal public image of the European Commission (57)� 6 The main ambition of Fenia Xenopoulou, the deputy director overseeing the anniversary plans, is to impress the Commission president and to gain his support for a more influential position than heading the Office of Culture, ranking last among all EU offices (47)� 7 For strategic reasons, she thus supports her co-worker’s idea to make the invitation of some of the few remaining Holocaust survivors the cornerstone for the celebrations� The participation of survivors is supposed to underscore the importance of Holocaust commemoration for the history and identity of the EU: the supranational European Union as antidote to racism and nationalism (179—88)� In one of the novel’s many ironic twists, the ultimately unsuccessful “Big Jubilee Project” underscores the paralysis of the EU� 286 Friederike Eigler The novel juxtaposes these career-driven efforts to showcase Holocaust survivors with snippets of the life of Jakob de Vriend, one of the last Belgian survivors of Auschwitz� Concurrent with the planning for the Commission’s anniversary celebration, de Vriend has to leave his longtime apartment and move to a retirement home, a change that complicates efforts to locate him and invite him to the planned celebration� In some of the rare sections narrated without sarcasm, the novel carefully portrays de Vriend’s difficulties in adjusting to his unfamiliar environment; signs of disorientation and dementia alternate with the intrusion of traumatic memories from his youth� This portrayal illustrates how an aging Holocaust survivor suffers from the long-term effects of trauma and thus serves as a powerful contrast to the political use of Holocaust memory among EU officials� The novel further complicates this constellation by introducing the character of Alois Erhart, a well-known and recently retired professor of Economics from Vienna who is member of the EU commission’s Advisory Group on the “New Pact for Europe,” charged with thinking about the future of the EU (295, 300)� In sharp contrast to its mostly younger members, Prof� Erhart insists on the significance of Holocaust commemoration for historical and ethical - not instrumental - reasons� This sincerity, the narrative suggests, is directly connected to the generation Erhart represents (born at the end of World War II) and its response to the involvement of the previous generation in National Socialism and the Holocaust� 8 Erhart and de Vriend’s paths briefly cross a few times in the novel, albeit without any interaction� 9 These chance encounters between a Holocaust survivor and a descendant of a perpetrator underscore their complementary roles in a narrative that, at its core, is concerned with European memory of the War and the Holocaust and related political and ethical imperatives in the present� The occasion for Prof� Erhart’s presence in Brussels is the invitation to present a keynote address at a meeting of the Advisory Group� Both in terms of plot and its narrative realization, the novel gradually builds up to this presentation� Over the almost 100 pages preceding the main part of Erhart’s speech, the narrative alludes to the radical nature of his address and to his anticipation that it will be his farewell speech to the think tank� 10 Menasse thus succeeds in turning a topic that is usually considered to be dry and abstract, namely the future of the EU, into a suspenseful and at times entertaining narrative� In his impassioned keynote address, Erhart calls for transforming the EU into a truly transnational body� He then addresses the upcoming anniversary celebrations with the planned focus on Holocaust commemoration and, in a surprising turn, proposes the following: “In Auschwitz muss die neue europäische Hauptstadt entstehen, geplant und errichtet als Stadt der Zukunft, zugleich die Stadt, die nie vergessen kann� ‘Nie wieder Auschwitz’ ist das Fundament, auf dem das European Cultural Memory 287 Europäische Einigungswerk errichtet wurde� Zugleich ist es ein Versprechen für alle Zukunft” (394)� Predictably, the audience responds with disbelief to Prof� Erhart’s proposal to build a new European capital at Auschwitz, the location whose name has become iconic for the Holocaust� In the context of the novel’s focus on EU bureaucracy and political scheming his impassioned plea appears both over the top and strangely out of place� Yet it also evokes the postwar consensus among the founding fathers of the EU, namely that European integration would be the best way to counter nationalism and racism, and to prevent military conflicts on the European continent� Put differently, the sincere manner in which Erhart, the son of a Nazi perpetrator, presents his provocative proposal references a dominant notion of European cultural memory regarding the centrality of World War II and the Holocaust� The board members’ response, on the other hand, underscores how far away the EU has moved from these foundational ideas� Prof� Erhart’s position on European memory as main impetus for strengthening the political institutions of the European Union largely reflects the author’s own outspoken support for reforming the EU� 11 Indeed, Robert Menasse mentions in an interview, posted on the website of his publisher Suhrkamp, that the character of Prof� Erhart can be considered his alter ego� In numerous essays, speeches, and a manifesto that Menasse co-authored with the political scientist Ulrike Guérot in 2013, he focuses on the urgent need for transforming the multinational institution of the EU into a truly transnational body as the only viable path forward� 12 Similar to Prof� Erhart, Menasse regularly references the catastrophic events of the last century, most importantly the Holocaust, as the main rationale for strengthening the EU� A recent controversy illustrates how closely Menasse’s character resembles the author’s own positions (and how fact and fiction got mixed up in the process)� The public conflict centered on the author’s inaccurate references to Walter Hallstein, one of the founding fathers of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community, both early versions of the EU� Menasse attributed his own argument regarding the need to abandon the nation state to Hallstein - who never actually argued for the dissolution of the nation state -, and he falsely suggested not only in his fiction but in other contexts as well that Hallstein chose Auschwitz as the location for his inaugural speech as president of the European Commission (Winkler)� 13 In the larger context of European cultural memory, the fact that Menasse misrepresented a prominent EU politician - missteps that he initially justified as poetic license but later acknowledged and apologized for - is less significant than the strong pushback he faced� He was severely criticized not only from members of right-wing parties but also by the mainstream press, including the 288 Friederike Eigler FAZ� In an impassionate defense, Eva Menasse puts her brother’s mistakes in perspective and calls out those who insinuate, in the most extreme instance, a proximity to the infamous “Auschwitz lie” (i�e�, to those who deny the historical facts of the Holocaust)� Her counterattack exposes how Holocaust memory is used here in a particularly sinister manner: namely to discredit an Austrian-Jewish author like Robert Menasse who has long been a strong advocate for holding on to the centrality of this very memory� Regarding methodological approaches to the study of memory, the attacks against Menasse illustrate how traveling memory discourses can be employed in highly problematic ways� Even if one agrees that collective memory, especially of Holocaust memory, functions in a multidirectional manner it is important to be aware of the potential for appropriating this memory for purely political or ideological agendas� 14 Turning from public discourse back to Menasse’s novel, the ending of Die Hauptstadt underscores that the generational consensus regarding the centrality of Holocaust commemoration can no longer be taken for granted� The advisory group does not take Prof� Erhart’s proposal seriously, and he leaves the scene immediately after his speech� The “Big Jubilee Project” falters as well (just like the anniversary plans for Emperor Franz Joseph in Musil’s Mann ohne Eigenschaften)� In the final part of the novel, representatives of some of the smaller EU countries on the EU Council, driven by national interests, even jeopardize the plan to focus on Holocaust commemoration for the 50th anniversary celebration of the EU commission (327—36)� 15 The novel’s ending is in other ways even bleaker� In reference to real events, the narrative traces the path of some of its principal characters in the hours and minutes just before the 2016 terrorist bombing at the Metro station Maelbeeck (438—51)� In a tragic and highly symbolic turn of events, the victims of the attack include Prof� Erhart and the Jewish character de Vriend (who was supposed to be featured prominently at the EU celebration)� 16 At the end of the novel, it is thus called into question who will carry on the memory of the Holocaust, portrayed here as the raison d’être of the European Union; and how a EU, lacking both a sense of its own history and the will to change into a truly transnational body, will be able to face mounting global challenges - including extremist threats - in the present and in the future� In the broader context of literature and European cultural memory, Menasse’s novel Die Hauptstadt provides no real answers to the questions is raises� Overall, its focus on the memory of the Holocaust as the combined result of nationalism and racism comes across, despite its use of sarcasm and satire, as rather prescriptive (Hieber)� Without adequate memory of 20 th -century European history, in particular the Holocaust, there is no viable future for the EU - a view clearly out of step with concerns that dominate the EU bubble of Brussels as portrayed European Cultural Memory 289 in the novel� At the same time, the novel references transnational criminal and terrorist activities that intrude into the city of Brussels and are literally at the doorstep of EU institutions� If one adds the frequent allusions to Musil’s Mann ohne Eigenschaften to the mix - a novel chronicling the disintegration of an earlier transnational configuration of the Habsburg Empire - the prospects for the European Union appear dire� 17 With regards to the changing roles assigned to European memory in the context of the House of European History, Menasse’s novel recalls the early phase during which Pöttering saw European memory as bolstering European identity� At the same time, the novel also tracks the generational and global changes that have loosened this connection between memory and identity and challenge the very assumption of a shared European identity� Recent scholarship on the changing role of Holocaust memory in Europe helps to further contextualize Menasse’s novel� For instance, Klaus Leggewie and Anne Lang’s Der Kampf um die europäische Erinnerung (2011) conceptualizes changing notions of European history and memory (“Geschichtsbewusstsein”) in terms of seven concentric circles, with Holocaust commemoration in the center (12—13), surrounded by collective memories of ”Kommunismus, Vertreibungen, Kriegs- und Krisenerinnerungen, Kolonialismus, Einwanderung, Europas Erfolgsgeschichte” (15—48)� Over the past 70 years, these memoires came to the fore unevenly across Europe, with a shift towards memory of Stalinism and the GULAG in post-communist Eastern Europe� There are plenty of literary examples that address these changing European memoryscapes (Biendarra 125—31; Wetenkamp 340—44) but in Menasse’s novel none of the other collective memories mentioned by Leggewie and Lang play a role� Prof� Erhart’s focus on Holocaust commemoration in Die Haupstadt epitomizes the Western European consensus of the Cold War period� By extension, this novel addresses primarily a German, Austrian, and Western European audience� As the title Der Kampf um die europäische Erinnerung suggests, Leggewie and Lang examine the memory battles and competing approaches to European memory that emerged especially since the end of the Cold War� While Leggewie and Lang focus on the dynamic and polyvocal dimensions of European memory, they continue to assume that Holocaust memory constitutes a stable core in the West� Michael Rothberg has taken the discussion of transnational memory in a new direction by rethinking the very functioning of collective memory� Instead of conceptualizing collective memories as distinct and circumscribed - visualized by Leggewie and Lang as concentric circles that are in constant competition - in his seminal work on Multidirectional Memory Rothberg calls on scholars to examine the productive and multilayered exchange and co-constitution of collective memories� 290 Friederike Eigler Similarly, in a 2011 article titled “Memory Citizenship,” Rothberg and Yildiz use as their point of departure the memory regime that Menasse’s novel continues to embrace: “Collective memory of the Holocaust has functioned as a point of reference for a post-fascist Europe and the basis for a new human rights regime at the same time that migrations have complicated the ‘unity’ of Europe’s population and posed challenges to Europe’s liberal model of rights” (34)� Although there are few explicit references to the changing demography of Europe in Die Hauptstadt, the epilogue mentions in passing a related contemporary concern, namely pervasive Islamophobia: The Brussels newspaper Metro conducts an online naming contest for a pig that runs loose in the city of Brussels (and that reappears at unexpected moments in the novel); the contest is discontinued when it turns out that the most frequently suggested name is “Mohamed,” a stand-in for Muslims (458—59)� As Seeba points out, by connecting Muslims via the name “Mohamed” to a pig, the novel alludes to the anti-Semitic term “Judensau” that harks back to Nazi Germany� The results of the naming contest thus underscore the looming threat of new forms of discrimination in a city unaware of the (European) past (Seeba 132)� The impasse at the end of Menasse’s novel provides a fitting segue for my discussion of a very different kind of novel� If Die Hauptstadt represents one end of a spectrum regarding literary contributions to European memory, Erpenbeck’s novel Gehen, ging, gegangen (GGG) is located at the opposite end� Several of Erpenbeck’s previous works focus explicitly on the intersection between collective history and individual biographies and explore how the effects of major historical events can be traced in the lives of her characters� Combining collective memories of Eastern and Western Europe, these novels examine the human costs of two World Wars, the Holocaust, National Socialism, Stalinism, Socialism, and German unification� By featuring multiple generations in her narratives, novels like Heimsuchung (Visitation) and Aller Tage Abend (The End of Days) ask how specters of the past continue to haunt the present� Furthermore, the plots and character constellations underscore the extent to which 20 th -century German history is intertwined with aspects of European memories (e�g�, the portrayal of German exiles in Moscow during and after World War II in Aller Tage Abend)� It is for these reasons that Erpenbeck’s works have been called, with reference to Pierre Nora, “European sites of memory�” 18 As Anke Biendarra shows, her novels open up imaginary transnational spaces and thus contribute to the construction of a European memory (132)� Biendarra raises two related aspects that are also essential for this article: the role of German and European history for the fate of Erpenbeck’s characters and, at the metaliterary level, the function of narratives as European sites of memory� European Cultural Memory 291 In contrast to her previous work, Erpenbeck’s most recent novel appears at first sight less concerned with issues of history and memory� Gehen, ging, gegangen is located in the present and addresses the precarious situation of a group of refugees in Berlin who seek asylum in Germany after entering Europe from the African continent under often harrowing conditions� 19 As I will show below, despite this focus on a contemporary human rights crisis, the novel not only opens up transnational spaces beyond Europe, but also new perspectives on transnational European memory� The novel is largely narrated from the perspective of its main character Richard, a widowed and recently retired professor of Classics who struggles to make sense of his new life and the unstructured time he suddenly has at his disposal� The narrative traces Richard’s initial lack of attention to a public hunger strike staged by a group of “dark skinned” refugees at Alexanderplatz in the center of Berlin (18—19) to his growing interest and active attempts to find out about the plight of African protesters occupying the Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg� The main part of the narrative portrays Richard’s interaction with individual refugees who are temporarily housed in an empty retirement home while they await the city’s decision regarding their relocation to other parts of Germany or Europe� At first, Richard adopts roles familiar to him as a scholar by doing background research and preparing interview questions for the refugees, but over the course of the novel he develops closer personal ties with some of them� Richard - and the reader - learns about the individual life stories of Raschid and Zair from Nigeria, a young man of the Tuareg tribe from Niger, and Awad from Ghana, among others� Together with some of his longtime friends, Richard ends up supporting several of the asylum seekers by providing housing and small jobs� This kind of support enables the refugees to defy, at least temporarily, the eventual ruling of the city that demands that they return to the locations across Germany where they first submitted their asylum applications - thus threatening the human ties they developed during their time in Berlin� While the novel focuses primarily on the transformation of the main character, it also gives voice to individual refugees and their biographies prior to displacement� These voices are filtered through the language and perspective of the narrator (marked by the use of the third person), yet Erpenbeck’s representation of their stories draws directly from her own interaction with and support of a group of asylum seekers� The novel’s paratexts illustrate that the author conducted extensive interviews in preparation for writing the novel, and that she sees her creative work as part of larger efforts to draw attention to - and improve - the untenable situation of refugees in Germany� 20 Both at the plot level and through its paratexts the book thus works towards reversing the state 292 Friederike Eigler of invisibility that the silent protesters embody at the beginning of the novel� Regarding the novel’s approach to cultural memory, the reasons for Richard’s initial blindness vis-à-vis the refugees are significant: When he passes the silent protesters, he is distracted by a series of loosely connected thoughts, beginning with the medieval system of catacombs that archeologists found below the Alexanderplatz and continuing with references to a system of underground tunnels in a Polish town that provided protection during times of danger until the Nazis discovered and destroyed the hideout (GGG 19—20)� In clear contrast to Menasse’s Hauptstadt, Richard’s attention to the “dominant memory of National Socialism” (Steckenbiller 72) is shown here to be a distraction from pressing challenges in the present� Put differently, while the main characters in both novels initially share a preoccupation with the German and European past, insulating them from other concerns, Gehen, ging, gegangen focuses on shifting priorities in the life of Richard� This process of reorientation does however not imply a disregard for 20 th -century German history and its effects on Richard’s life - on the contrary� As Brangwen Stone illustrates in detail, the novel’s main protagonist shares a number of experiences with the African refugees he befriends (“Trauma”)� Very early in his life, toward the end of the Second World War, Richard’s family was expelled from Silesia, and during the upheaval of the flight the infant Richard was almost separated from his mother� They later lived through the Allied aerial bombing of Berlin� Through his interaction with the refugees, Richard recalls some of these memories and post-memories, i�e�, traumatic stories communicated to him by family members� In addition to these early childhood experiences of flight and displacement, Richard’s entire thinking is shaped by the unexpected disappearance of the East German state, i�e�, the country where he grew up and established a comfortable life as a professor� Twenty-five years after unification, Richard still feels disoriented and to some degree foreign in the Western parts of the city of Berlin� Taken together, his biography references major aspects of 20 th century German and European history, including flight and expulsion, life in the divided Germany, and in unified Germany, similar to other protagonists in Erpenbeck’s earlier novels� The novel incorporates these “national” or “German” memories in a multidirectional manner: Gehen, ging, gegangen brings Richard’s post/ memories of displacement and ongoing feelings of disorientation and loss in touch with related experiences of the refugees� Drawing on theories of trauma and postmemory, Stone maintains that the novel succeeds in creating multiple points of connection between Richard and the refugees, processes that she also sees reflected in the novel’s effect on its readers (6)� However, Erpenbeck wisely stops short of equating Richard’s overall secure life as retired professor with the existential European Cultural Memory 293 situation of the refugees� Indeed, as Gary Baker convincingly argues, despite some similarities in their respective biographies, the novel ultimately contrasts the refugees’ state of extreme precarity with Richard’s privileged life style (507)� Regarding the larger question of European memory, it is noteworthy that the character Richard is shaped not only by German collective memories of the 20 th century, but also by cultural memory harking back to antiquity� Richard’s entire intellectual life is clearly anchored in European notions of Bildung and the history of Western civilization (Steckenbiller 70—72)� Indeed, his occupation as Classics professor at the Humboldt University - the prototype of the “modern” university founded by Wilhelm von Humboldt - can be read as exemplifying a Eurocentric cultural memory of the educated elite that largely transcends East- West European differences� 21 Not surprisingly, this background affects Richard’s interaction with the African refugees� For instance, the refugees’ stories of displacement and flight trigger Richard’s associations with Homer’s Odyssey, Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris, and Mozart’s Magic Flute and the character Tamino, among other famous cultural artefacts� These brief references to aspects of the Western cultural tradition serve to highlight the parameters of Richard’s education and worldview, but the novel employs them in a manner that undercuts their dominant reception as classical pieces of art by relating them to contemporary instances of violence and displacement� Furthermore, the narrative draws attention to some of his engrained racist and sexist attitudes, and to the trouble Richard has remembering the Africans’ foreign sounding names� He responds by renaming some of them after figures from Greek and Germanic mythology� In his notes about his encounters with the refugees he calls the young Tuareg man from Niger “Apoll” and Awad from Ghana “Tristan” (GGG 84)� This act of renaming highlights the extent to which Richard’s entire thinking is steeped in a Western tradition of Bildung� Yet his encounters with individual refugees begin to challenge this Eurocentric outlook� Examples include first and foremost Richard’s increasing openness and empathy toward the stories of others; he listens not only to their traumatic memories of civil war in Libya and the horrific flight to Europe, but also to the refugees’ accounts of the regions, homes, and traditions they left behind� In brief, Richard - the quintessential expert on and product of humanistic Bildung - assumes the role of someone who is willing to learn about the backgrounds of those who enter Europe from a range of African countries� Importantly, hearing these stories of individuals, whose names he was not able to recognize let alone remember, he begins to question some of his own longheld beliefs and becomes increasingly involved in their lives� For instance, the narrative suggests that through the encounter with the refugees and their responses to loss and death, Richard begins to develop new awareness for the suffering of others - forms of empathy that up to this point 294 Friederike Eigler had been largely lacking in his comfortable and self-centered life� 22 This process exemplifies what Ann Rigney considers to be one of the crucial role of the arts for reshaping European cultural memory: “Creative narratives help to ‘thicken’ imaginative relations with other groups […] along lines that transcend those of traditional memory narratives while helping to create alternative shared points of reference for the future” (622)� Furthermore, at a cognitive level, Richard begins to expand his knowledge about the history and religious practices of Islam (GGG 106—08, 342) and about Europe’s colonial histories on the African continent (53, 64, 66, 175, 186), albeit in a rather superficial manner� Among the national and international responses the novel has provoked, several comment on the hopeful dimensions of Richard’s encounter with individual asylum seekers� For instance, Monika Shafi reads the novel’s ending as transforming a private home into a transnational space and of projecting a vision of a cosmopolitan community (Shafi 199); and for Stone the novel turns the “ungrievable lives” ( Judith Butler) of refugees into grievable ones� But there are also critical responses that underscore the discrepancy between the situation of the prototypical German character Richard on the one hand, and the asylum seekers’ desperate situation on the other; and on the risks of eliding this chasm by focusing on Richard’s transformation and fledgling empathy� 23 Yet as Gary Baker convincingly shows, the novel does not only foreground these affective connections, it also provides information on and ultimately a scathing critique of the European asylum laws as entirely inadequate in light of contemporary causes for mass migrations� Despite corresponding aspects in the respective biographies, the novel thus ultimately contrasts the refugees’ precarious situation with Richard’s privileged life� In sum, Gehen, ging, gegangen does not suggest in any way that interpersonal relationships between European citizens and asylum seekers can begin to solve the global human rights crisis� Rather, its plot and narrative style 24 underscore the urgency of this crisis and the need to change restrictive EU asylum laws� As indicated above, both the interpersonal and the collective dimensions of Gehen, ging, gegangen pertain to an emerging notion of European memory that makes visible Europe’s linkages to the African continent� Beyond the presence and integral role of minorities throughout European history, the more recent arrival of large groups of refugees at the EU borders and the global reasons for these large-scale movements of people bring to the fore the extent to which Europe’s history and its present situation are intertwined with that of other parts of the world� Erpenbeck’s novel explores the demands that the changing face of Europe places on all EU citizens, not only recent newcomers� Through the figure of Richard, the prototypical German citizen, the novel challenges its readers to reconsider the way we think (and feel) about our own places of belonging, our European Cultural Memory 295 own histories, and the extent to which they are entangled with postcolonial legacies and with individual life stories of migrants and refugees� 25 The novel thus provides both a supplement and a corrective to the notion of “Memory Citizenship” as proposed by Rothberg and Yildiz� In their 2011 article, they call for an approach to collective memory that takes into consideration the memories of migrant populations (or “migrant archives”)� As an example, they discuss a group of migrant women in Berlin who became involved in multidirectional memory work that connects the German past to aspects of their own histories� Rejecting ethnicized notions of national identity, Rothberg and Yildiz consider this kind of memory work to be a performance of citizenship that “derives from being-in-common, not common being” (44)� Erpenbeck’s novel explores the reverse constellation: It traces Richard’s growing awareness of how aspects of his own past correspond with the refugees’ experiences, and how the legacies of colonialism continue to link Europe to the African continent (GGG 182, 252—53, among others)� Thus Gehen, ging, gegangen focuses on the need of German and European citizens - not primarily migrants, as in Rothberg and Yildiz’s case study - to engage in prosthetic memory work 26 as a necessary step to imagine more just European and global futures� If performances of memory can function as “acts of citizenship,” as Rothberg and Yildiz claim, 27 then we might want to think of Erpenbeck’s novel as an example of how literature can participate in such performances and, in the process, envision new notions of European and global citizenship� Returning briefly to the questions raised by the House of European History mentioned at the outset, the two novels discussed here could not provide more different answers� With regards to the underlying concepts of Europe and European memory, Menasse’s Hauptstadt links Brussels, the unofficial EU capital, to the imagined EU capital of Auschwitz in an ultimately futile effort to rescue a Western European memory culture centered on “never again” - the political rationale of the founding of the EU� At the same time, the consistently sarcastic tone of the narrative brings to the fore the generation-specific reasons for tying European cultural memory to Holocaust commemoration� To be sure, the German and European past, including the Holocaust, are referenced in Gehen, ging, gegangen as well, for instance when Richard moves through the urban landscape of the city of Berlin� But these memories remain part of Richard’s passing thoughts and mark him as a prototypical German citizen� 28 The novel as a whole suggests that this is not the place and time for providing history lessons to refugees� It is rather time for Richard and his friends and, by extension the citizens of Europe, to engage with the refugees’ life stories and the entangled histories of European and African countries� While the HEH underscores the 296 Friederike Eigler history and legacy of European colonialism, Erpenbeck’s novel explores some of the implications of this legacy for a well-situated European citizen� Implicit in both the HEH and Gehen, ging, gegangen are thus expansive notions of Europe and of European memory, entanglements that go beyond the borders of the European Union and beyond the European continent� In different ways, both the permanent exhibit and Erpenbeck’s novel begin to consider Europe’s “Other Heading” as Derrida has termed the “southern coast of the Mediterranean” (7), i�e�, the northern part of the African continent� 29 As I have shown over the course of this article, both novels function as European sites of memory, but the approach in Erpenbeck’s novel contrasts sharply with that of Menasse’s Die Hauptstadt� The underlying notion of European memory in Die Hauptstadt “assumes a fixed legacy that is owned or inherited by particular groups” (Rigney 610), while in Gehen, ging, gegangen prosthetic forms of remembering emerge in Richard’s interaction with a diverse group of refugees from Ghana, Libya, and Niger� The genre of the novel allows for the rendering of new affiliations and for dynamic forms of memory that are linked to alternative visions of Europe� At the same time, it is precisely the “thickening” of imaginative relations in Gehen, ging, gegangen that throws into relief severe shortcomings of European migration policies and asylum laws� With their contrasting outlook on the European past, Menasse and Erpenbeck envision markedly different presents and futures� Beyond these different emphases, both Menasse’s and Erpenbeck’s novels represent major landmarks in contemporary German-language literature showcasing its broadening transnational relevance� Notes 1 See https: / / historia-europa�ep�eu/ en/ permanent-exhibition (accessed 17 January 2019)� For a critical account of the permanent exhibition with special emphasis on the representation of European colonialism, see Sieg� 2 In addition to the 2016 Thomas Mann Prize, Erpenbeck received the 2017 Order of Merit of the FRG (Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) in recognition of her support for refugees (http: / / www�bundespraesident�de/ SharedDocs/ Berichte/ DE/ Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/ 2017/ 10/ 171004-Verdienstorden-TdDE�html� Menasse’s novel Die Hauptstadt received the 2017 German Book Award (Deutscher Buchpreis) which is awarded annually at the Frankfurt Book Fair (https: / / www�deutscher-buchpreis�de/ der-preis; accessed 15 February 2019)� His novel and related publications draw on his in-depth research on the EU� 3 Although EU institutions are located in several European cities Brussels serves as de facto EU capital since most of its political institutions are lo- European Cultural Memory 297 cated there (the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament)� 4 For instance, the opening scene features a pig running lose through the city of Brussels (“Da läuft ein Schwein! ”; Hauptstadt 9)� The pig reappears at various other points of the novel but it remains unclear until the end if the pig is real or a “hysterical collective projection” (Hauptstadt 174, 457)� The sarcastic tone is most prominent when the role of culture or the careerism of some of the EU civil servants is addressed (e�g�, Hauptstadt 33—34, 45—47)� Menasse’s critical portrayal of the role of the EU Office of Culture in Der Europäische Landbote provides further background, including information on the lack of funding for this office (76—81)� This contrasts with Menasse’s positive comments on the EU Commission as the only truly transnational EU branch (Landbote 21—27)� 5 Musil’s novel chronicles the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire while holding on to the vision of a transnational “Haus Europa�” In Die Hauptstadt, Musil’s novel is repeatedly mentioned as the favorite book of the Commission president (alias Jean-Claude Juncker, at the time of writing)� In Der Europäische Landbote Menasse compares his own idea of writing a novel about the EU with novels like Musil’s that preceded epochal change (107—08)� 6 My analysis focuses on this main narrative strand and its connection to the life (and eventual death) of the Auschwitz survivor Jakob de Vriend� Among the novel’s other narrative strands are the machinations of a transnational criminal network that is responsible for a murder in Brussels and its subsequent cover-up by the Belgian police; and the pork trade, showcasing the absurd consequences of the elaborate EU subvention system (a topic that is associated with the pig running loose in the city - see note #4)� 7 The general disregard for the Office of Culture and the satirical portrayal of its deputy director draw on Menasse’s observations during his extended stay in Brussels (Landbote 76—81)� 8 The reader learns that Erhart’s father participated in the killings of Jews in Poland (Hauptstadt 396—97)� Furthermore, the novel draws attention to the ways in which many of the characters’ families were involved in or affected by the War� This provides a powerful contrast to the lack of interest among most EU politicians and civil servants in 20 th -century European history (Seeba 131—32)� 9 It is telling that the first encounter takes place at an old cemetery in Brussels next to the graves of soldiers arranged according to nationality (Hauptstadt 87—88)� The cemetery is contrasted with the lack of graves for the victims of the Holocaust, including for de Vriend’s family (85)� 298 Friederike Eigler 10 Long before Erhart’s speech (Hauptstadt 385—95) there are allusions like this one: “Er hatte einen radikalen, für diese Runde völlig verrückten Text geschrieben” (301)� 11 During the early 2000s Menasse was highly critical of the lack of democracy in the EU but since his extended research in Brussels in 2010 he has turned into a strong EU advocate who is in favor of strengthening the European Commission, the only truly transnational body of the EU (Landbote 34—36)� For an overview on Menasse’s changing positions on the EU, see Büssgen 317� 12 See the speeches in Menasse, Heimat ist die schönste Utopie; Menasse, Der Europäische Landbote; Menasse and Ulrike Guérot, “Manifest für die Begründung einer Europäischen Republik�” - 13 Winkler pointed out Menasse’s errors in 2017 but the public controversy only erupted two years later� 14 Erll’s notion of “traveling memory” underlines that all cultural memory is constantly moving across real and virtual borders� Rothberg’s concept of “multidirectional memory” examines specific instances of borrowing and cross-referencing with focus on Holocaust memory� Erll mentions the risks involved in these processes (14)� 15 In a further twist, the president of the Commission himself finds the anniversary plans unacceptable but cannot say so openly; instead, his chief of staff leaks information to EU Council members who then reject the planned celebration for purely national reasons� 16 In one of the novel’s most compelling sections temporality is suspended and de Vriend’s traumatic flashbacks of his deportation, the conditions of his survival, and his parents’ death in Auschwitz are fused with symptoms of dementia and his death at the Metro station Maelbeek (Hauptstadt 447—51)� 17 In an astute observation Seeba calls Menasse’s novel the “aesthetic equivalent” of the political process of EU integration� The success of the former stands in for the lack of success of the latter (Seeba 126, 132)� 18 Biendarra 126� Pierre Nora has introduced the term lieu de mémoire for both real places and metaphorical sites (including anniversaries and objects) that are central for collective memory� 19 By coincidence the novel appeared in the fall of 2015, at the height of the so-called refugee crisis� 20 See the author’s thank you note at the end of the book, acknowledging numerous conversation partners whose names suggest that many are of African descent� She also provides information on a specific Berlin church and bank account for those who want to make donations in support of refugees� European Cultural Memory 299 21 The emphasis here is on the Eurocentric reception of traditions we associate with Greek antiquity versus their actual “travel” through many continents (Erll 13)� 22 In a rare instance of a first-person narrative Richard is haunted by the (imaginary) presence and voice of one of the refugees (GGG 135—50)� As part of this process Richard also begins to recognize his own vulnerabilities and his lack of empathy with his late wife (115, 347—48)� 23 For a comprehensive review of the novel’s scholarly and public reception see Stone as well as Steckenbiller� 24 See, for instance the disruption of the narrative on pages 328—29� These pages are left blank except for the following question, repeated twice: “Wohin geht ein Mensch, wenn er nicht weiß, wo er hingehen soll? ” 25 According to Gurminder Bhambra, decentering the West as the “cradle of civilization” is not sufficient� She calls for more sustained attention to the ways in which “the histories of colonialism, imperialism, and slavery enabled Europe and the West to achieve this dominance” (80)� 26 Alison Landsberg coined the term “prosthetic memory” for forms of memory that are not based on one’s own experience but are communicated via film or other cultural media� 27 According to Rothberg and Yildiz, the key role that memory of the recent past plays in German society means that German citizenship requires “both memory work and affective labor across society” (36, 39)� 28 At various points in the novel Richard deliberately refrains from educating the refugees about the German past and the role of the Holocaust� He is motivated in part by a sense of shame but also by awareness of the recent traumatic experiences with which the refugees are still grappling (GGG 149—50)� 29 This is also mirrored elsewhere in contemporary European culture, for instance in the ongoing debate about the Berlin Humboldt Forum and the demands to finally decolonize German and other European museums� See Bowley as well as “Humboldt-Forum�” Works Cited Baker, Gary� “The Violence of Precarity and the Appeal of Routine in Jenny Erpenbeck’s Gehen, ging, gegangen�” Seminar 54�4 (2018): 504—21� Biendarra, Anke� “Jenny Erpenbecks Romane Heimsuchung (2008) und Aller Tage Abend (2012) als europäische Erinnerungsorte�” Wahrheit und Täuschung. 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Der Spiegel, 23 Oct� 2017� Web� 10 July 2019� - “Eine Straße des Ankommens und Anfangens”: European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg13 0 3 “Eine Straße des Ankommens und Anfangens”: European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 1 Ian W� Wilson Centre College Abstract: Barbara Honigmann’s autobiographical texts about Strasbourg, principally Chronik meiner Straße (2015), inscribe her search for home in an ever-changing Europe� Honigmann’s insistence on the constancy of change among the need for stability lies at the core of any understanding of contemporary Europeanness� Such emphases illustrate new open, heterogeneous conceptions of European identity that have become expressly part of the European project� Honigmann’s exploration of such issues in her adopted home of Strasbourg uses the location as a European city par excellence, contrasting the historical-symbolic site praised by official European discourses with its more complex contemporary realities, including multilingualism� As her texts on Strasbourg offer counterweight to political discourses, feminism and Judaism also come into play� W� G� Sebald’s Austerlitz (2001), which depicts an unending search for home in a fixed but lost past, serves as a contrast to Honigmann’s positions� Keywords: Honigmann, Heimat, Strasbourg, feminism, work Contemporary literature in German often explores and disrupts European frames: its characters move through liminal, transnational space, wander across borders, and explore new conceptions of identity due to migration� Barbara Honigmann’s autobiographical texts about Strasbourg - principally Chronik meiner Straße (2015), but also the pieces collected in Am Sonntag spielt der Rabbi Fußball (1998) and Damals, dann und danach (1999), and “Bonsoir, Madame Benhamou” in Roman von einem Kinde (2001) - inscribe her search for home in an ever-changing Europe� As she attempts to generate stability in a new space, she simultaneously describes its dynamic changes� Honigmann’s insistence on the constancy of change among the need for stability lies at the core 304 Ian W� Wilson of any understanding of contemporary Europeanness� To delineate contrasts to Honigmann’s perspective on Europe, I will briefly discuss W� G� Sebald’s Austerlitz� Where Honigmann’s texts on Strasbourg create an ever-developing sense of home, Sebald’s novel depicts an unending search for home in a fixed but lost past� What do we mean when we use the term “European” at the present moment? According to Lena Wetenkamp in Europa erzählt, verortet, erinnert, commentators have tended to answer the question politically, by evoking the European Union (EU) and its borders; or diplomatically or economically, by gesturing beyond the EU to include locations like Switzerland and the United Kingdom (8)� Wetenkamp’s study emphasizes the ways the definition of “Europe” constantly changes to adjust to new pressures and to reevaluations of past and present identity-creating influences (8—9)� Globalisierungs- und Migrationsprozesse haben die Vorstellung einer homogenen kulturellen Identität porös werden lassen und Menschen sind gegenwärtig in Netzwerke und Zugehörigkeiten eingebunden, die weit über die nationalstaatlichen Grenzen hinausreichen� Diese Vorstellung ganz unterschiedlicher Identitäten, die aber dennoch eine Gemeinschaft bilden, liegt dem europäischen Motto zugrunde� (9) New open, heterogeneous conceptions of European identity have emerged; they are expressly part of the European project� But in her emphasis on globalization and migration - as well as her integration of postcolonial critiques - Wetenkamp gestures beyond traditional, insular definitions of Europe to include influences from the rest of the world, beyond Europe’s political or economic borders (15)� Wetenkamp describes how literary texts like Terézia Mora’s and Ilma Rakusa’s participate in designing and constructing “ein ganz neues Europa” (Wetenkamp 119)� She emphasizes how fictional literary texts can show how individual literary characters, portrayed in distinct situations and spaces, reflect and reimagine major historical and political developments: these texts become imaginative acts portraying how fictional individuals negotiate European realities (120)� Literary texts can therefore enhance traditional political discourses as an additional mode of exploring the effects of policy, describing how individuals experience the EU’s broad, transnational processes and the results of other drivers of globalization� Wetenkamp locates such experiences along the border, in searching for one’s home, and in negotiating one’s identity vis-à-vis others (116); determining which languages to speak where plays a role, too (15) - all of which are also primary elements of Honigmann’s Strasbourg texts� Literary texts provide richer, deeper engagement with human developments compared with official discourses, which can only describe such engagement in general European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 305 or abstract terms� Similarly, Randall Halle’s notion of Europe as an “interzone” in The Europeanization of Cinema describes culture in Europe as a process and a negotiation resulting from the interactions of various people from various backgrounds in a new, undetermined space (9—10)� The contrast between the official policy of European transnational entities and the experience of individuals living in such spaces comes into sharp relief in literary representations like Barbara Honigmann’s� Honigmann’s exploration of such issues in her adopted home of Strasbourg is apt: she uses Strasbourg as a European city par excellence, contrasting the historical-symbolic site praised by official European discourses with its more complex contemporary realities� Geographer John Western argues in a similar vein that Strasbourg is an “exemplar of Western European urban centers” (6) and highlights the combination of a prewar binational (French-German) past that led to a postwar international and then supranational present - as seats of the Council of Europe and the EU respectively� At the same time, the city shows an increasingly transnational inflection resulting from immigration from outside Europe’s traditional boundaries (8)� Since World War II, Strasbourg has frequently emerged as a symbol of the possibility of a new, peaceful Europe� In 1945, Charles de Gaulle described Strasbourg as a crucial border city that would again facilitate ship traffic but also the exchange of ideas, influences, and civilization (de Gaulle)� Winston Churchill drew upon the symbolism of the city’s war-torn past in his speech praising its election as seat of the Council of Europe in 1949 (Churchill)� As Western put it, “After those two world wars, the city was set up for a symbol of reconciliation and of a New Europe which was to transcend nationalist entanglements” (7)� 2 Such symbolic connections persist in official European discourses: The former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker referred to Strasbourg as a symbol of European peace and democracy in his tweet after the December 2018 terrorist attack on the Strasbourg Christmas market (@JunckerEU)� According to Western, contemporary Strasbourg has become a different kind of place than often portrayed by European politicians� While the symbolism of a binational and bicultural city contributed to the early success of the project of European integration, today the city displays a new, transnational reality much more prominently: […] we can see that the searing Franco-German dilemma for which Strasbourg had long been most known has been laid to rest by the European Union project beginning in the 1950s and continuing up until today� Yet, paradoxically, during this selfsame period, the solving (or at the very least the profound assuaging) of the Franco-German binational dilemma of the Alsatian Double Culture has simultaneously seen the cre- 306 Ian W� Wilson ation of an altogether novel set of transnational Double Cultures in Strasbourg sequent upon the arrival of settlers from afar� (249) Western argues that the historical French-German “binational” Strasbourg has been replaced by multiple transnational cultures, each one “doubled” with the city’s dominant French culture� As we shall see, Honigmann focuses her texts about Strasbourg on such dilemmas, exploring the ways that more complex, transnational individual experience contrasts with simplistic official political discourses� Critics have long noted how characters in Honigmann’s texts have established new, complex identities and searched for new homes to express those identities� Such searching is a key theme in her first novel, Eine Liebe aus nichts (1991)� Karen Remmler suggests that the strength of that book lies in Honigmann’s exploration of contemporary European Jewish identities, as the narrator engages in “en-gendering a female Jewish identity that is neither fixed nor homogenous, but rather fragmented and heterogeneous, yet not without agency” (“En-gendering” 189)� 3 As Honigmann became better known, autobiographical aspects of her texts have also received significant critical attention: critics often emphasize Honigmann’s personal search for a new home� Anna Kuschel’s Transitorische Identitäten describes how the interplay between autobiographical elements and literary representation in Honigmann’s work focuses readers’ attention on the process of identity development; Kuschel’s analyses locate elements in characterization and in plot that frustrate stable notions of identity construction� In considering Honigmann’s autobiographically focused Strasbourg texts together, I will highlight the recent shifts in Honigmann’s consideration of European models of identity, drawing attention to their specifically European features, including her focus on contemporary multicultural and multilingual Strasbourg� Honigmann’s Strasbourg-based texts explore real and discursive European space� This kind of exploration has been at the heart of the European project: international cooperation, trade, and exchange, but also the relatively free migration of people between locations in Europe, and the possibilities of locating new opportunities for the development of individual subjectivities in different spaces and in different languages - the chance to find one’s home� As Remmler and Dagmar Lorenz (214) have noted in regard to Honigmann’s work until 2000, issues of migration and home are inseparable from Honigmann’s Judaism and her gender� Such issues remain at the core of all of Honigmann’s texts, including Chronik� Honigmann reinforces the importance of Judaism and women’s experience to the formation of the multiplicity of successful European identities� In the confines of this essay, I will emphasize gender, while acknowledging the European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 307 substantial body of work commenting on the importance of Judaism in Honigmann’s texts� 4 Chronik meiner Straße is the key text for this analysis as it marks the furthest point yet in the evolution of Honigmann’s autobiographical project� This project has a number of overlapping phases, including her most fictionalized novels (Eine Liebe aus nichts; Soharas Reise; Alles, alles Liebe! ; Bilder von A.), her essays, and her work on her mother (Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben)� Her most clearly autobiographical texts have often focused on Strasbourg: first in the short observational pieces collected in Am Sonntag, then in the more structured essays in Damals and in Roman, most recently taking the form of a combination of the two, Chronik meiner Straße. This last title suggests both a deep personal relationship and a home: a neighborhood is not fully one’s own until one has made a home for oneself there� Honigmann’s texts - with the arguable exception of Soharas Reise - always feature protagonists active in the arts� Therefore “meine Straße” cannot simply describe the narrator-protagonist’s home but rather also the site where she works� “Work” in this case includes the typical activities readers associate with Honigmann (writing, painting, exploring Judaism, orchestrating her family)� If - as the text’s title claims - it is a “Chronik,” “work” also suggests a documentary responsibility, a duty to chronicle the details of the reality of her neighborhood, albeit one that is subject to fictionalization� Since Honigmann foregrounds the complex negotiation she has undertaken as a woman in her texts - as an artist, as a practicing Jew, as a mother, and as a wife - she highlights the role gender plays in her identity� I am drawn to the combination of gender, productive activity, migration to and within Europe, and observation in Chronik and other texts - presented in the intriguing location of Strasbourg, which encourages the reception of Honigmann’s work through a European lens� Examining these issues together highlights the creative act of European identity formation Honigmann undergoes in her texts alongside the other creative acts of painting, writing, raising a family, and exploring her Judaism� Chronik begins and ends with a similar description of Honigmann’s neighborhood, the area around the Rue Edel in east-central Strasbourg� On the first page, the narrator comments: Unsere Straße scheint also eine Straße des Anfangs und des Ankommens zu sein, bevor man nämlich in die besseren Viertel umzieht, die ruhiger sind und in deren Häusern nur zwei, drei Parteien wohnen, Häuser, die von kleinen oder größeren Gärten umgeben sind und in der Nähe von Parks liegen oder des Europa Parlaments, oder aus deren Fenster man einen Blick auf die Kathedrale hat oder auf die Ill, die ein Nebenfluß des Rheins ist und die Altstadt von Straßburg einschließt� (5) 308 Ian W� Wilson Here Honigmann not only describes this transitory space, which she, however, has inhabited for over thirty years but also its location far from the city’s typical European centers: European institutions on the one hand, the cultural heritage of the cathedral and the old city on the other� On the book’s final page, the conclusion speaks of the “kleine[r] Weltraum unserer Straße, die nach überallhin offen und doch auch ein bißchen geschlossen ist und von der so oft gesagt wird, ach ja, in der Straße haben wir am Anfang auch gewohnt” (152)� As I will describe below, between these two descriptions, Honigmann shifts her purportedly liminal space into a different kind of center, a microcosm of a transcultural, translinguistic, transreligious Europe that forms a fundamental element of - and becomes formed by - Honigmann’s own creative process� Central issues of gender, Heimat, the border, and the periphery versus the center come to the fore� Ultimately, Chronik suggests a new model of a transcultural Europe Yasemin Yildiz would call “postmonolingual” (4)� Honigmann’s book, both a “Chronik” and a memoir, gently negotiates the line between fiction and nonfiction� In her first “Zürcher Poetikvorlesung” (delivered in 2002) Honigmann commented: Auch das autobiographische Schreiben ist ja Fiktion� Der französischer Schriftsteller Serge Doubrowski fand 1977 für dieses Phänomen den passenden Begriff: Autofiktion� Das autobiographische Schreiben liegt irgendwo in der Mitte zwischen Tagebuch und Roman, und es ist nicht nur deshalb Fiktion, weil alle Verwandlung von Wirklichkeit in Schreiben Fiktion ist, sondern auch, weil sein Projekt der Selbstforschung, Selbstentdeckung und Selbstoffenbarung mindestens in dem gleichen Maß immer auch Selbstinszenierung, Selbstfiktionalisierung, Verwandlung des Lebens in einen Roman, manchmal sogar Selbstmythologisierung ist� In diesem Sinn kann autobiographisches Schreiben romanhafter sein als ein Roman� (Gesicht 39) She does not name herself as the narrator of Chronik, but her family’s circumstances and her husband’s first name match biographical facts, and the family name appears toward the end of the book (137)� As is the case with her other Strasbourg texts, readers are encouraged to identify the narrator with Honigmann the writer� 5 By contrast for its use of a narrator who is mostly unlike Honigmann, the short novel Soharas Reise (1996) nevertheless represents an important text for any discussion of Honigmann’s Strasbourg� The novel is largely set in the city, at the intersection of North African Sephardic traditions in exile in France and postwar European Jewish life, which the novel describes as dominated by the Ashkenazim and the legacy of the Holocaust� The novel foreshadows the emphases of Honigmann’s autobiographical Strasbourg texts, especially the in- European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 309 ternational and cultural border created by the Rhine and the complex legacies of the German language and Germany’s past� 6 We can already see elements of Chronik’s complexity and ambivalences regarding personal identity in this early novel, for example, through its contrasts between Sohara’s migration from Algeria and Frau Kahn’s Ashkenazic experience; in the discussion of multiple languages and customs (French, Arabic, and German); in the exploration of international borders; and in the depiction of Sohara’s role as a mother as creative� On the other hand, Soharas Reise diverges significantly in tone from Honigmann’s later texts� For instance, the novel concludes in a hopeful gesture of celebratory reunification for the eponymous Sohara with her children and an establishment of domestic peace (120)� Such comparisons with Chronik help us grasp the evolution in Honigmann’s thought� As we shall see, in the recent text, she deftly utilizes these dynamics to describe the identity formation that occurs in her neighborhood� In three short texts in Damals, Honigmann explores her family’s move to Strasbourg, further laying the groundwork for her portrayal of the city in Chronik� In the first, “Hinter der Grande Schul,” she comes closest to describing the reasons for the choice of Strasbourg, at most in part due to a legendary connection to Alsace through one of her grandmothers (Damals 59)� The number of Jews in Strasbourg, while as high as that who had lived in Berlin before the war (58—59), does not reach the size of the community in Paris, for example� Rather, her comparisons with Germany and Strasbourg’s German past are key to Honigmann’s own sense of the place� Though not Paris, Strasbourg seems “ein Jerusalem” in comparison with East Berlin (58), and Honigmann describes the fact that so many Jews have moved into the neighborhood Kaiser Wilhelm designed for his bureaucrats in the late 19th century as “[e]ine Ironie der Geschichte” (59)� In the second text, “Von meinem Urgroßvater, meinem Großvater, meinem Vater und mir” Honigmann grants her location in exile a key role in the critical distance that enables her writing: “Als ich nun in das andere Land gekommen war, wenn auch nur drei Straßen hinter der Grenze, habe ich auch zu schreiben begonnen” (46)� Sitting in a park on the Rhine, looking across to Germany, after chatting with a Turkish family who themselves had moved from Germany to France, Honigmann concludes, “Wir sitzen also auf der anderen Seite des Rheins und gucken nach Deutschland rüber, nach drüben, wie es in der DDR so lange hieß” (54—55)� The spatial remove, however slight, enables crucial critical insight� Finally, in a third text in Damals, “Meine sefardischen Freundinnen,” she describes the cultural mix of Strasbourg that is attractive but also confusing: 310 Ian W� Wilson […] und meine ganze Existenz hat nie aufgehört, ein Leben zwischen hier und dort zu sein, eine Art Doppelleben, oder ein Zwiespalt zwischen meinem Jüdischsein hier und meiner Arbeit dort, in beidem fühle ich mich an beiden Orten jeweils nicht verstanden oder nicht einmal wahrgenommen, und eigentlich ist es sogar ein dreifaches Leben, wenigstens am Rande berühre ich ja drei Kulturen, die französische, die deutsche und die jüdische nämlich, und wenn es ein guter Tag ist, fühle ich mich bereichert und denke, daß ich Glück habe, an drei Kulturen teilhaben zu können, und wenn es ein schlechter Tag ist, fühle ich mich zwischen allen Stühlen sitzend und verstehe gar nichts� (72) In “Bonsoir, Madame Benhamou,” the final text in Roman von einem Kinde, Honigmann describes how strange her new home in Strasbourg initially felt, especially so after her family’s return from their first vacation in France, travelling “nach Hause in die Fremde” (113)� Close and far, productive and vexing, Strasbourg has provided Honigmann with fertile ground to develop her search for identity and home for years� These details emerge most fully in her longest text about Strasbourg to date, Chronik� Chronik describes elements of many of the details familiar to Honigmann’s readers - growing up in East Berlin; stories of her mother’s hometown of Vienna and of her mother’s native tongue, Hungarian; her father’s origins in Hesse; her Judaism; and her family’s emigration to Strasbourg in the 1980s� These facts of dislocation - also including her parents’ dislocation due to the Holocaust and their personal circumstances, and her own, generally tied to increasing adherence to Judaism - provide an impetus for the seeking out of a new space: one in which to define herself, one that provides a site for her writing and her painting, and one to call home� Chronik again emphasizes Strasbourg’s location on the border, focusing on Honigmann’s street located not far from the Rhine canal that once served as part of the city’s defenses: “Wahrscheinlich ist unsere Straße eine der östlichsten Straßen Frankreichs, denn sie liegt am östlichen Rand der Innenstadt, wo es nach Deutschland hinübergeht� In der Zeit, als Straßburg deutsch war […]” (6)� The peripheral nature of her new chosen home is thus doubled as both a provisional space reserved for “beginnings and arrivals” and one moved out of Germany, but just barely: a contested location, both historically and culturally� The fact that the book presents such a description of her neighborhood in this now French city in German, its former dominant language, compounds this contesting� The text notes this status explicitly: the narrator and her husband knew the city before their arrival from one of its most prominent temporary residents, Goethe, who memorably wrote of the cathedral in Dichtung und Wahrheit, which Chronik explicitly references (18—19)� 7 European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 311 Yet rather than dwelling on such connections in the past, Honigmann’s texts focusing on her life in Strasbourg present her identity outside centers of recognized power, but ultimately representative of a specific type of European identity possible in one of the European capitals� This identity develops not in the European quarter of the city - near the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights - but in a neighborhood on its outskirts, a space dominated by the constant change of new immigrants, abandoned in efforts for upward mobility to more desirable spaces� Again and again, Honigmann stresses how her family has remained in the neighborhood for decades while others have moved away� She stresses how she and her neighbors have increasingly mastered the French language and French customs there (Chronik 83—86), how the neighborhood has reacted to her family’s evolving Judaism (see the discussion of the family’s Sukkot tent, 133—39), and how her family continues to rent the apartment even when moving seems logical (19— 20)� Perhaps most tellingly, she looks back on the past while thinking about her neighborhood, recalling over two decades of birthdays and also “Krisen und Krankheiten und Ängste und vielerlei Sorgen, Kräche, Aussprechen, Versöhnungen, Feste und Feiern, angespannte Zeiten, einsame Stunden und vertrödelte Tage, ich bin weggefahren und ich bin wiedergekommen” (34)� In this liminal space inhabited by Holocaust survivors from rural Alsace and from elsewhere in Europe, where Honigmann’s own minority Jewish religious practice has continued to develop, readers also encounter immigrants from Iran, West Africa, Turkey, South Asia, East Asia, Portugal, and Eastern Europe: the texts draw readers’ attention not to traditional modes of national identity but to emergent transnational models within a European city� Religion - principally Judaism and Islam - and language serve as points of contact but also of conflict� In Chronik Honigmann describes herself speaking four languages: French, German (through which she can understand some Yiddish), Hebrew, and English� Yet Honigmann describes her own successful attempt to create a long-term home for herself and her family in this space� Her texts require us to question what kinds of stabilization a European home might support� Honigmann layers two prominent aspects of her neighborhood over each other: on the one hand, the fact that it has become an established Jewish neighborhood - enough to refer to it as a “zweite[s] Ghetto” (Damals 59, Chronik 131)� On the other hand, as a transitory neighborhood of “arrivals and beginnings,” it is also filled with recent immigrants to France from Africa, Asia, and elsewhere in Europe� Overall Chronik balances the human urge to establish a stable home with an emphasis on a multiplicity of divergent perspectives and the constant shifts that continue to alter the larger spaces in which that home might be located� 312 Ian W� Wilson Although Honigmann briefly explores lingering Alsatian elements of the neighborhood in Chronik, she does so primarily through a linguistic lens, focusing on her own use of Hochdeutsch versus what is for her a mostly incomprehensible dialect (25, 30—31, 60, 113)� More interesting to her besides her occasional use of German with some neighbors is the frequent appearance of French words, phrases, and customs in the book alongside the many other languages, religions, and cultures of the neighborhood: Viele Völker wohnen in unserer Straße, und man hört sie in vielerlei Sprachen sprechen� Abgesehen davon, daß die ganze Gegend mit der Zeit immer mehr zu einem jüdischen Viertel geworden ist, liebevoll das zweite Ghetto genannt, leben hier viele Araber, Türken und Kurden, dazu Schwarze in allen Abstufungen von Schwarz […]� Es gibt Pakistani, Inder und Sikhs mit Turbanen und Frauen in Saris, Asiaten, die vielleicht Chinesen oder Japaner oder Koreaner sind […], Portugiesen, Russen und andere Osteuropäer, Albaner, Rumänen, Bosnier� (9—10) These recent immigrants, like Honigmann herself, bring with them linguistic diversity: “Es ruft, redet, spricht, brüllt und schreit in unserer Straße in unzähligen fremden Sprachen […]” (13)� Specific examples include Frau Kertész, whose use of Hungarian is frequently noted (22, 25, 29)� 8 Rev Jechiel and his wife Lotte play important roles, too: the narrator communicates with the immigrant neighbor couple originally from Lithuania and Frankfurt am Main (via Israel) via four languages� French - the official language of the city - plays no role in these conversations: neither Rev nor Lotte Jechiel can speak it yet (125)� Other examples include the Iranian “Anne-Marie,” an Azeri who speaks neither Farsi, nor French, nor her own mother tongue Azeri well (82—83)� Furthermore, the narrator notes that at one edge of the neighborhood lies the “école internationale” (9), an institution named for the prominent Luxembourgish-French politician and one of the founders of the EU, Robert Schuman, for whom a number of elements of the EU are named� At this school, instruction takes place in French alongside English, Italian, and Spanish� Honigmann’s neighborhood is a polyglot, cosmopolitan space in which the narrator herself moves between cultures and languages fluidly, a space on the edge of, but inextricably linked to, the EU� Within this multicultural and ever-developing space, Honigmann also lovingly describes her desk, her writerly home� This desk becomes the base for many of the observations that dominate the book� “Mein Schreibtisch,” she writes, “steht am Fenster, neben der Balkontür […]” (Chronik 32)� From this vantage point, she views and hears the street, always returning to the balcony even when the observations take her out into the street, to shops, or to the neighborhood market� In “Von meinem Urgroßvater” in Damals, Honigmann includes her husband’s European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 313 comment about the context of their move to Strasbourg and their work, “eigentlich wissen wir gar nicht mehr so recht, wo wir nun hingehören, aber Peter hat geantwortet, das ist auch nicht so wichtig, wir gehören eben an unseren Schreibtisch” (39)� Yet in Am Sonntag, based on short pieces originally published from 1991—96 in the Basler Zeitung (Harig), Honigmann notes explicitly that she can set up her home office only once her oldest son has left Strasbourg to study in Nîmes: “Ich versuche derweil, sein ehemaliges Kinderzimmer in ein Arbeitszimmer für mich zu verwandeln� Das ist nicht leicht […]” (Am Sonntag 18), sentiments echoed in “Ein seltener Tag” in Damals (124—25)� This space, where she explores a language that itself serves as “irgendeine verlassene Heimat” that she carries around with her (Chronik 84), helps anchor the subjectivity at the center of Chronik in the variety of linguistic and cultural demands of her neighborhood� In “Selbstporträt als Jüdin” in Damals, Honigmann writes, “Ich denke aber, der Schriftsteller ist das, was er schreibt, und er ist vor allem die Sprache, in der er schreibt� Ich schreibe nicht nur auf deutsch, sondern die Literatur, die mich geformt und gebildet hat, ist die deutsche […]” (18)� Chronik’s narrator occupies a progressive space but also a place of privilege: in her role as narrator; as an educated, middle-class, artistic other living near public housing; and as a chronicler of the world from her desk on the third floor� The shifts between the domestic and the feminist resemble established frameworks in understandings of women’s spaces� Doreen Massey writes, “The limitation of women’s mobility, in terms both of identity and space, has been in some cultural contexts a crucial means of subordination” (179)� The essays in Damals suggest that Honigmann’s decision to leave East Germany was motivated by her understanding of Judaism and Jewish-German relations (14—17), but also by her bristling at the sexism of her Berlin artistic circle (52—54)� Her move into exile - to France, which she calls her “Land der Freiheit” (52) - can be read as partially motivated by her ultimate refusal of her existing restricted options as a woman and a Jew� Thus, her move to Strasbourg suggests a level of agency in her self-imposed exile� In other texts, Honigmann strongly ties her move to Strasbourg to increased Jewish religious practice� In Chronik, however, the move is less motivated, perhaps at least partially since the result of her move is more important for the book’s themes� The narrator-protagonist arrives in Strasbourg with her husband and oldest son and begins a new life, establishing a new identity for herself� Honigmann’s identity formation does not follow an expected model of liberation� The emphases on home and the family, especially while her sons are young, could be understood as continuing a pre-feminist model that links women to their homes� Massey writes, “The construction of ‘home’ as a woman’s place has, moreover, carried through into those views of place itself as a source of sta- 314 Ian W� Wilson bility, reliability and authenticity� Such views of place, which reverberate with nostalgia for something lost, are coded female” (180)� Indeed, Chronik presents the home as both the center for the narrator’s family life - especially related to her children, to the family’s Judaism, and to care for the neighbors - as well as her primary workplace� However, Honigmann presents domesticity as part of a creative gesture of self-definition, though one that is not without its potential complications� In Am Sonntag, she notes, “[…] aber ich weiß nun wenigstens, daß ich keine Dichterin oder Schriftstellerin bin, habe es ja eigentlich schon lange gewußt, dass ich nur eine schreibende Hausfrau und malende Mutter bin” (14)� As I have argued above, Honigmann’s texts frequently describe actions in her family life as creative acts themselves� Nevertheless, about twenty years later, when she writes Chronik, her sons have grown up and left home, allowing her to turn her focus increasingly to her painting and writing� In Keepers of the Motherland Dagmar Lorenz attributes the complications embedded in Honigmann’s writing not only to her religion or her gender, but to a combination of both with her life in France: Living as a Jewish woman in France requires that Honigmann negotiate modern and traditional, revolutionary and conventional values; the presumption of a woman’s right to equal access and freedom within the traditionally patriarchal Jewish structures is as problematic as reconciling the empowerment of women in physical, spiritual, professional, and creative terms with motherhood and the nuclear family� (214) In other words, the struggles of Honigmann’s gendered, intersectional work generate her creativity and force her to develop a new model into which she can fit all the elements of her life on her own terms� Honigmann thus fits well into Lorenz’s model outlining the complexities of literary work by Jewish women writing in German� By the time she writes Chronik, Honigmann has succeeded in creating a home, but she constantly emphasizes the change of everyone around her (including herself): moving in and out of the neighborhood, her own children growing up and leaving home, the elderly dying and the depressed committing suicide, and new people moving in� Inzwischen lebe ich schon so lange in der Straße des Anfangs, daß mir der Anblick vieler Gesichter, aus den Häusern gegenüber, aus den Häusern nebenan, Gesichter der vielen Völker und des ‘anderen Frankreichs’ vertraut geworden sind� […] Jahre sind vergangen, wir sind hier zusammen älter geworden, und vielleicht gerade, weil wir uns überhaupt nicht näher kennen, nehmen wir die Veränderungen auseinander stärker wahr; die Haare sind grau geworden oder gefärbt, der Gang hat sich European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 315 verlangsamt […]� Manche Gesichter jedoch sind verschwunden, an irgendeinem Moment ist mir aufgefallen, daß ich die oder jene Person sehr lange nicht, eigentlich gar nicht mehr gesehen habe, daß sie verschwunden ist, vielleicht gestorben, vielleicht weggezogen, und ich weiß nicht, ob ich sie an einem anderen Ort, in einer anderen Straße als die unsrigen, zu deren Bild sie gehörte, überhaupt wiedererkennen würde� (140—41) Despite the sadness in Honigmann’s description of the changes that her adopted home constantly undergoes, there is also a recognition of the importance of place in the relationships she has built� Her own aging plays a role here, but so too does the disappearance of the other people grown familiar, replaced afterwards with other, new faces� Honigmann’s own face was also once the new one in the neighborhood, and the place has created the condition for recognition� Just as these faces fit into the precise location of Honigmann’s Chronik, so too does it structure her own experience� As a crucial contrast to the new home established in Strasbourg, Chronik includes thoughts about the narrator’s lost Heimat, Berlin, as well� In Chronik Berlin is a “Heimatstadt” but remains ambivalent: Ich erkenne die Stadt an jedem Platz und in jedem Moment wieder, und wenn sie sich neuerdings auch noch so herrichtet und begehrt und bewundert wird, bleibt sie für mich doch immer der Ort, von dem ich mich, solange ich dort lebte, wegwünschte und fortsehnte� Und auch wenn ich jetzt wiederkehre, kann ich keinen Platz für mich finden, ich laufe kopflos durch die Stadt, deren Osten mir nur allzusehr vertraut ist […], deren Westen ich mir jedoch mit einem Stadtplan erlaufen muß […]� (69—70) Versus Berlin, which she visits in the book to finally see her father’s grave (73— 75), she contrasts her own wish to be buried in her new home, Strasbourg (78)� Honigmann is not alone among contemporary German-language writers in her search for home� In Heimat, Space, Narrative, Friederike Eigler writes of emerging new definitions of Heimat in German-language culture, noting a recent resignification of the term for a new era� Authors of a younger and ethnically more diverse generation in Austria and Germany no longer take National Socialism as the sole point of departure for critical or alternative renderings of Heimat� Responding to the challenges of a globalized world - marked by acceleration and increasing time-space compression - contemporary literature examines new notions of locality and belonging and, in the process, transforms the meaning of Heimat and the term’s cultural and historical baggage� (27) For Eigler, generational structure, ethnic diversity, and recent globalized migration patterns help to craft new models of Heimat� Honigmann links these 316 Ian W� Wilson attempts to specific European situations and possibilities� As the Jewish daughter of Holocaust escapees born shortly after the war and an immigrant from the mid-1980s German Democratic Republic to a working-class neighborhood in Strasbourg where she witnesses the complexities of contemporary urban French life, Honigmann is the kind of author both Eigler and Wetenkamp describe� Though the Holocaust appears in the book via several neighbors who are survivors, it does not dominate Chronik� And though her Judaism is a type of otherness familiar in the German-speaking world, Honigmann’s writing about France is tinged with a variety of explorations of past and present ethnic realities in the European capital of Strasbourg, which leads to a description of a new kind of European space� 9 Those realities highlight contrasts between the old Alsatian “binational” and new generally French (and European) “transcultural” identities� In other words, literature itself redefines this new space (Eigler 38—39)� Following Yuri Lotman’s “Semiosphere,” this conceptualization of Heimat allows us to understand space in literature as reflections of contemporary cultural conceptions of spatial relationships, which are often extremely complex� Lotman localizes these changes partially in the notion of the boundary, a site on the periphery� For Lotman, the periphery, “bilingual and polylingual” (136), eventually displaces and replaces the center (134—35)� Honigmann’s Chronik ties critical personal developments in specific spaces undergoing some of the same transformations: in understandings of the local, the transnational, the cultural, and the personal� These transformations occur in a location explicitly described as on the periphery: of the country of France, of the city of Strasbourg (a capital of Europe), and of the official French language� What of a periphery that aims to preserve its complex nature, to remain multilingual, multicultural, and multireligious? Can Honigmann’s place of “beginnings and arrivals” maintain this status if she remains present within it and acts as its chronicler? The “postmonolingual” and peripheral condition of Honigmann’s neighborhood helps enable her new European approach� 10 Chronik, written in German but set in France with substantial elements of the French language and French culture as well as material in Hungarian, Alsatian, Yiddish, Hebrew, etc�, develops a fundamentally different type of space as its core� As a German-language exploration of a diverse neighborhood in France, specifically in a location of cultural exchange among multiple cultures and one of the capitals of Europe, her book might be seen as one possible direction in the future evolution of Europe and of German-language literature� 11 Superficially, an author writing in German about the city of Strasbourg could seem a logical connection to the city’s past� But Honigmann’s text focuses on its present and future instead, 12 and on a space constituted by multiple heterogeneous groups: European bureaucrats, recent immigrants to France, a growing Jewish commu- European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 317 nity, all with echoes of an older international, intercultural past� Texts like this may not seem to fit well into a traditional sense of nation-based German Studies, yet the field today frequently explores matters far beyond the national borders of any single German-speaking space� Furthermore, as Bethany Wiggin reminds us, speaking of a monolingual German “national literature” is an ideological construction in need of historicizing, and one that we can destabilize and redefine� 13 In this sense, Honigmann fits well into the recent emphasis on writers in German who newly (re)conceptualize Europe� A counterexample to Honigmann’s approach to establishing a home in Strasbourg is provided by W� G� Sebald’s Austerlitz (2001), which draws on many similar themes, but from the perspective of an unending search for home in the past� Sebald’s novel also utilizes an expressly European frame and it also questions the stability of national structures with regards to origins, languages, and identities� However, Austerlitz uses these techniques to a different end and with a different focus from Honigmann’s work� While her Strasbourg texts feature the creation of a new home in a dynamically changing present-day Europe, Sebald’s novel features a search for a lost, original home through attempts to reconstruct the missing past of Jacques Austerlitz, a Czech Holocaust escapee living in London� In contrast to the stable concentration on Strasbourg in Chronik, the core of Sebald’s novel features Austerlitz meeting the novel’s unnamed non-Jewish German narrator in neutral, transnational spaces: Belgium (Brussels, Liège, and Zeebrugge), London, and Paris� Their use of first French, then English plays a role as well, providing linguistic spaces that are neutral for the two of them (and also EU sanctioned)� The novel Austerlitz pairs its protagonist and its narrator as figurative twins: the Holocaust escapee and the anglophile German have intertwined European fates that overlap in European spaces with official European languages that enable their long conversations� 14 These discussions are open-ended, with Austerlitz continuing his search for home� While in Chronik the protagonist-narrator has made a real home out of a makeshift, temporary space, Austerlitz shows its protagonist on an open-ended search for home: first with his friend Gerald’s family, then in his wanderings through London until he recovers lost memories of the Kindertransport at the Liverpool Street Station� From there his search takes him to Prague, where he recovers his Czech when he encounters his former nanny, who still lives next door to his childhood apartment� Then he visits the former Theresienstadt, where he searches unsuccessfully for evidence of his mother’s fate� He returns to London, but then moves on to Paris, now in search of signs of his father’s fate� Returning to London from Prague by train, Austerlitz passes through Germany, noticing somewhere between Würzburg and Frankfurt another critical moment from his past: 318 Ian W� Wilson Von weither erinnerte ich mich, indem ich so hinausblickte, daß es mir im Haus des Predigers in Bala und auch später noch oft geträumt hatte von einem grenzen- und namenlosen, gänzlich von finsteren Waldungen überwachsenen Land, das ich durchqueren mußte, ohne zu wissen wohin, und das, was ich nun dort draußen vorbeiziehen sah, das, so dämmerte es mir, sagte Austerlitz, war das Original der so viele Jahre hindurch mich heimsuchenden Bilder� (Sebald 324) This terrifying moment makes clear that the European spaces Austerlitz travels through are sites of his own trauma� He searches through space after space in Europe, where the Holocaust has contaminated most sites for him� Sebald’s novel, then, can be understood as a motion through unremediated space, space still dominated by a traumatic past, space that prevents him from settling down� Thus Sebald inscribes a notion of the European that displays constant motion, displacement, and mourning� In this regard, Honigmann’s emphasis on a stable location developing into a home while witnessing constant change all around her is a very different conceptualization of European spaces within German-language literature: fundamentally, Honigmann’s work focuses on the present and the future, rather than the traumatic past� Honigmann has settled in her new home, has established her career, but remains transfixed by the changes that continue to swirl all around her, observing the dynamism of a new Europe� Mentioning Strasbourg’s binational history but emphasizing its contemporary transnational realities, Chronik meiner Straße participates in a redefinition of Europe and of the typical materials of German culture through multilingualism and constant change occurring in a peripheral location� As Chronik and her other texts on Strasbourg offer counterweight to political discourses, feminism and Judaism also come into play� Her texts about Strasbourg suggest that this change is at the heart of Europe: finding a home only to see that space continue to change, evolving into somewhere new all the time� In contrast to the retrospective orientation of Sebald’s Austerlitz, Honigmann’s Strasbourg texts describe the present, which constantly develops into unexpected future models� In contemporary Europe, identity remains in flux, open to new influences from across the globe� Notes 1 This essay developed out of papers at German Studies Association conferences in 2016 and 2018� I would like to thank the commentators for their questions and suggestions� Thanks to the editors of this issue for their helpful comments� The financial support of Centre College allowed me to conduct research at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv� European Spaces in Barbara Honigmann’s Strasbourg 319 2 See Hein for how Strasbourg was chosen as a capital of Europe� 3 See Herzog for a contrasting assessment� 4 See Stern; Remmler’s essays; Lorenz; Herzog; Eshel’s essays; Bannasch; Feller; Gillo; Gordinsky; Nolden; and Shahar’s essays� 5 Weiss suggests that Honigmann’s repetition of autobiographical elements in multiple texts with slight variations lends them a universal quality (20), which helps us understand how autofictional elements can work to the benefit of Honigmann’s project� At a reading for Chronik I attended on 12 May 2016 at a bookstore in Kehl, Germany, Honigmann moved from excerpts from the book to personal reminiscences� Slippages between life and text are clearly part of her performance of self in written and spoken modes� For discussions of the interplay between autobiography and fiction in Honigmann’s work, see also Steinecke; Guenther; Kuschel’s texts; Gsoels-Lorensen 369—70; Müllender; Schade; and the essays in Eshel and Weiss’s edited volume, Kurz, including the editor’s “Vorwort” 7—8� 6 See Shahar, “Jude sein” for a discussion of the Rhine as a border� 7 Other memorable associations of the city with German culture include Gottfried, Sachs, Gutenberg, Herder, Lenz (especially via Büchner’s prose piece about him), and Arp� A German writer’s place in Strasbourg has a traditional if anachronistic logic to it� 8 This name is likely an example of the fictionalization that takes place in Honigmann’s autobiographical texts� In an open letter in the Frankfurter Rundschau to Imre Kertész upon his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, Honigmann mentions celebrating his win with a Hungarian neighbor, “Frau Egri” (“Schwarzfahrer” 17)� Honigmann may have changed the name of this real person in part in homage to the Hungarian Nobel laureate but also to protect Frau Egri’s identity� 9 See Feller, especially 97—98, on German-Jewish relationships with the term Heimat� 10 Yildiz argues that monolingualism structures most of one’s life, “from the construction of individuals and their proper subjectivities to the formation of disciplines and institutions, as well as of imagined collectives such as cultures and nations” (2)� Shifting away from monolingualism thus results in fundamental changes to all of these aspects, from identity to a sense of one’s home to citizenship� 11 Gordinsky notes that although Honigmann writes all her texts in German, they often display sensitivity to multilingual environments� Gordinsky argues that Honigmann’s use of German to describe life in France enables critical distance and the ability to remake German to fit her own poetic ends (128)� 320 Ian W� Wilson 12 See Eshel, “Barbara,” especially 187, for a discussion of this orientation� 13 See Gramling for an overview of recent developments in multilingual German Studies� 14 See Wilson 128—33 for a discussion of “twins” in Austerlitz� Works Cited Bannasch, Bettina� “‘Wegen der Auferstehung der Toten’: Zur Bedeutung des Jüdischen für das Erzählen im Werk Barbara Honigmanns�” Kurz hinter der Wahrheit und dicht neben der Lüge: Zum Werk Barbara Honigmanns� Ed� Amir Eshel and Yfaat Weiss� Munich: Fink, 2013� 131—47� Churchill, 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New York: Fordham UP, 2012� The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia in German-Language Literature about Former Yugoslavia3 2 5 The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia in German-Language Literature about Former Yugoslavia Maria Mayr Memorial University of Newfoundland Abstract: This article details how Marina Achenbach’s Ein Krokodil für Zagreb (2017) and Marica Bodrožić’s Mein weißer Frieden (2014) reintroduce the legacy of socialism into European memory and thereby put the spotlight on a common European past that has often been sidelined both after WII and after the end of the Cold War� Engaging in a form of postsocialist nostalgia that is firmly oriented towards the future, both prose works invoke memories of the potentials, the exclusions, the dreams and possibilities of the Yugoslav socialist project in order to critique the capitalist present and to make suggestions for a better European future� Rather than providing some kind of political blueprint for a better Europe, however, the crux of their future-oriented nostalgic representations of the past lies in a more abstract commitment to hope and the ability to think beyond the capitalist status quo� That is, both authors turn to the socialist past in order to affirm the utopian spirit more generally and to insist on the possibility of radical social, economic, and political change� Keywords: Marina Achenbach, Marica Bodrožić, postsocialist nostalgia, memories of the future, German-language literature about former Yugoslavia The past decade has witnessed not only multiple crises across Europe, but a crisis of Europe itself, which continues to struggle to define itself as a collective� Concerned about what could foster a cohesive collective identity for Europe able to withstand economic and political turmoil, the European Parliament has expended considerable efforts in strengthening Europe’s collective identity by attempting to consolidate a collective memory� Passed in 2009, the European 326 Maria Mayr Parliament Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism, for instance, asserts that: Europe will not be united unless it is able to form a common view of its history, recognizes Nazism, Stalinism and fascist and Communist regimes as a common legacy [… and b]elieves that appropriate preservation of historical memory, a comprehensive reassessment of European history and Europe-wide recognition of all historical aspects of modern Europe will strengthen European integration� (K and 10) Due to the Eastern expansion of the European Union, the challenge to engage with the legacy of former communist regimes and socialism has become a pressing task in recent years� Over the course of the Eastern Enlargement, eleven postsocialist countries joined the EU, i�e�, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004, followed by Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, and by Croatia in 2013� As numerous scholars point out, one of the many challenges brought about by the Enlargement is how to integrate the memory discourses of these postsocialist countries with Western European ones� 1 While the majority of post-WWII memory discourses in Western Europe have the Holocaust at its center (Leggewie and Lang 14), most of the countries that joined the EU in the past one and a half decades bring with them additional relevant memories such as those of socialism, the gulag, or the secret police, as well as different perspectives on WWII, the Cold War, and the fall of the Iron Curtain that have yet to be told and heard� Literature can play an important part in telling these (hi)stories and both support as well as subvert the “elite” project of forming a common European memory (Borodziej 146)� This is particularly the case for German-language literature written by writers from the countries that joined the EU as part of the Enlargement� Their works can - and often do - articulate the histories and pasts of the authors’ countries of origin� Having lived in both the East and the West, these writers are able to tell Eastern European histories and memories in such a way that they can resonate with an audience that is, by and large, relatively unfamiliar with the history of the countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain� These writers therefore create what one can call, expanding on Anne Rigney’s term, “subtitled memories�” Rigney maintains that translated works in Europe can create “‘subtitled memories’ - memories that cross borders while retaining their alterity” (Rigney 354)� Authors with an immigrant background writing in German, I would argue, create a similar kind of subtitled literature, one which mediates not only between multiple languages but also between different cultural, historical, and socioeconomic contexts, making it accessible to a German-speaking audience� Given the relative dearth of translations of literature from Eastern into Western European languages (Navracsics 5, Hamm The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 327 4), the role to be played by writers with an immigrant background in ‘subtitling’ Eastern European memories for Western European readers deserves our attention and investigation� In this article, I focus on the subtitled European memories that are articulated in literature written by authors with a background in the countries that once made up Yugoslavia� Former Yugoslavia is a particularly illuminating example when it comes to questions of a collective European memory� The twentieth-century history of what was once Yugoslavia arguably is one of the most emblematic of that of all European countries: Citizens of today’s Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, and the Kosovo have been subjected to - and sometimes have embraced - past and present identities fashioned by fascism, socialism, and capitalism, as well as transnational, ethnic, and nationalist movements� They have witnessed two World Wars and the 1990s Balkan wars; and they have lived under dictatorships replete with genocides, concentration camps, and gulags� On a more positive note, to many left-leaning European intellectuals, Yugoslavia was also exemplary for having taken the “third way” between Western capitalism and Eastern socialism after Yugoslavia’s Tito parted ways with Stalin in 1948 and Tito became one of the founders of the Non-Alignment Movement in 1961� Tito’s Yugoslavia, in the minds of many, thus served as a model for the socialist alternative (Previšić 141)� The history of the former “multinational state” (Kolstø 764) of Yugoslavia is nowadays also often invoked as a structural example for today’s European Union and as a potential warning sign for what can happen due to misled economic and ethnic policies (Petrović 12)� In addition, Yugoslavia was also exemplary for Europe due to its multiethnic and multireligious character: Tito managed to unite Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, Slovenes, Albanians, Macedonians, and Hungarians for several decades under the umbrella of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, continuing the region’s “historical legacy of ethnic multiplicity and co-existence” (Todorova, “Nostalgia” 67)� Finally, Yugoslavia also takes on a special significance for Europe due to the Balkan wars of the 1990s that followed right on the heels of, and were in part due to, the fall of the Iron Curtain� These wars, their attendant nationalisms, ethnic tensions, and crimes against humanity, such as the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, did not leave Western European countries untouched� The conflicts were covered extensively by media outlets in Western European countries; countries such as Germany were directly confronted by the consequences of the war due to a substantial influx of refugees; and political and ethical questions surrounding international and NATO interventions, as well as the lack thereof, yet remained to be fully addressed� Moreover, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yu- 328 Maria Mayr goslavia, whose mandate lasted from 1993 to 2017, kept the war crimes of the 1990s in the public eye� Given these factors, it is not surprising that the topic of former Yugoslavia as well as its violent breakup in the 1990s have received much literary attention in Western European countries, including in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland� One can point here to works by established German-language authors such as Peter Handke, Juli Zeh, Norbert Gestrein, or Martin Mosebach, as well as by several German-language authors with an immigrant background from countries outside of former Yugoslavia, including Hungarian-German writer Terézia Mora, Israeli-Austrian writer Doron Rabinowich, South Korean-German writer Anna Kim, and Russian-German writer Lena Gorelik� The most sustained engagement with former Yugoslavia as well as the 1990s wars, however, can be found in the work of German-language authors with a background in one of the countries that once made up Yugoslavia� - Melinda Nadj Abonji (Serbia, Hungarian minority) - Sanja Abramović (Croatia) - Marina Achenbach (Croatia, former East Germany) - Adriana Altaras (Croatia) - Melica Bešlija (Bosnia-Herzegowina) - Ana Bilić (Croatia) - Marica Bodrožić (Croatia) - Alida Bremer (Croatia) - Mascha Dabić (Bosnia-Herzegowina) - Nataša Dragnić (Croatia) - Alma Hadžibeganovič (Bosnia-Herzegovina) - Ivan Ivanji (Serbia) - Viktorija Kocman (Serbia) - Meral Kureyshi (Kosovo) - Nicol Ljubić (Croatia) - Jagoda Marinić (Croatian parents) - Barbi Marković (Serbia) - Danijela Pilic (Serbian-Croatian) - Danko Rabrenović (Croatia) - Saša Stanišić (Bosnia-Herzegovina) - Ana Tajder (Croatia) Fig� 1: German-language authors from territories of former Yugoslavia As one can see in Fig� 1 above, there are more than twenty authors writing and publishing in German on the topic today� 2 While some of these writers’ works are lesser known, several have been met with considerable critical acclaim� 3 Given the sheer number of publications as well as the favorable public reception of a fair number of these works, this corpus’s contribution to European memory deserves further analysis� The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 329 In the following, I will focus on how some of the works in this corpus reintroduce the legacy of socialism into European memory and thereby put the spotlight on a common European past that has often been sidelined both after WWII and after the end of the Cold War� More specifically, I will take a closer look at literary commemorations of positive aspects of this memory, which are often dismissed as expressions of what has been termed “red nostalgia�” This alleged nostalgia for socialism spans many postsocialist countries, whether one turns to post-Yugoslav states and Yugonostalgia, to former East Germany and the phenomenon of Ostalgie, or to Soviet nostalgia in Russia (Velikonja, Titostalgia 33)� While the phenomenon apparently enjoys considerable popularity in former Yugoslavia’s successor states, any official memories of socialism have been deliberately sidelined in post-Yugoslav society� There are several complex reasons for this “coerced oblivion of the socialist legacy” (Demiragić 129), only some of which can be mentioned here� For cultural theorist Jasmina Husanović, the sidelining of the socialist past is a deliberate political strategy aimed at “inducing the kind of historical amnesia that the political elites rely upon to distract ordinary people from their misuse of power’” (qdt� in Demiragić 129—30)� Similarly attributing the phenomenon to political self-interest by “the ruling nationalist political and cultural elites” (Beronja and Vervaet 6), Vlad Beronja and Stijn Vervaet argue that bracketing the socialist past allows the new post-Yugoslav nation states, which continue to be built around the ethnopolitics that drove the violent disintegration of former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, to consolidate “their new grammars of national memory” by constructing an “uninterrupted continuity with pre-communist national histories” (5), effectively denying close to fifty years of interethnic coexistence� Ignoring the existence of a previously functioning Yugoslav state also furthers the politically sanctioned view that the more than seventy-year existence of the supranational and religiously as well as ethnically integrative Yugoslavia was forced upon the various national identities, rendering Yugoslavia an unwelcome reminder of “das Scheitern einer schiffbrüchigen und im Bürgerkrieg versenkten Idee und Ideologie” (Ristović 105)� Putting the silencing of the socialist past in a European context, Tanja Petrović furthermore argues that a predominantly negative evaluation of the socialist past is also supported on the European level due to the prevailing notion that freeing oneself from the socialist legacy is a precondition for the successful Europeanization of postsocialist countries (13)� The latter implicitly suggests that socialism has no place in a contemporary liberal and democratic Europe, which gestures towards another important context for the sidelining of the socialist past, namely global capitalism� As Maria Todorova usefully reminds us, the other side of the coin of socialism is capitalism� Thus, Todorova con- 330 Maria Mayr textualizes postsocialist nostalgia - for her “a specific legacy of the socialist period” - in view of the larger history of what is variably called “the capitalist world economy, the capitalist mode of production, the ‘iron cage’ of capitalist modernity, the age of industrialism, urbanism, modernization, or globalization” (“Nostalgia” 68)� This context casts doubt on what Todorova sees as the prevailing practice of continually mentioning the socialist legacy in tandem with fascism or Nazism, which can also be observed in the EU Parliament Resolution quoted at the beginning of this article, where “Nazism, Stalinism and fascist and Communist regimes” are grouped together as one sinister cluster of Europe’s shared totalitarian legacy� In foregrounding the modern origins of socialism as the counterpart of capitalism, Todorova argues instead that one should rather be juxtaposing “capitalism and communism; or liberalism (including neo-liberalism) and communism” (“Nostalgia” 68—69)� This reframing of how we remember Europe’s socialist past in the context of the post-Cold War consolidation of neoliberal capitalism in Europe is crucial when trying to assess the phenomenon of postsocialist nostalgia because it allows us to read it in the context of, and in reaction to, neoliberal capitalist practices that are part and parcel of the ‘Europeanization’ of post-Yugoslav states� In his empirically informed study of nostalgia in several postsocialist countries, Mitja Velikonja observes that Titostalgia, i�e�, a contemporary fascination with Tito in post-Yugoslav countries, does not only serve “the industry of nostalgia” as escapism, a legitimizing tool of the ruling class, or as dissident discourse� Rather, an ahistorical image of Tito mostly functions as what the anchor calls a “retrospective utopia,” revealing postsocialist nostalgia to be mainly “a wish and a hope” for a better world (Velikonja, “Lost in Transition” 548)� Rather than being concerned with Tito as a historical figure and with his Yugoslavia as an authoritarian dictatorship, let alone with returning to socialism as a political system, postsocialist nostalgia is thus utopian in nature� In people’s nostalgic recollections, socialist Yugoslavia figures “as a social experiment that worked for some time” and despite all of its serious imperfections, it is as close to the realization of the “utopian ideals of a just society” (emphasis in original) as it gets (Velinkonja, Titostalgia 130—31)� In Velinkonja’s analysis, Tito and his socialist Yugoslavia thus provide building blocks that can be selectively recombined into a bricolage of contemporary constructions of retrospective utopias (131)� As Velikonja asserts, young people in particular use Titostalgia in this way in order to offer a sharp critique of present social and economic injustice, political arrogance, nationalism, and “other exclusivisms, because examples from the past prove that it was possible to live together” (131)� In her interview-based study of postsocialist nostalgia in Bulgaria, Daniela Koleva similarly points to both the bricolage-like nature of postsocialist nostalgia and its critical and utopian The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 331 import for the present� As she argues, her interviewees’ representations of the past are not in the spirit of a testimony or truth-seeking mission but rather selective and fictional, creating “an idealized past from selected fragments of the actual one” (Koleva 425)� Like Velenkonja, Koleva observes that the way in which these fragments are assembled focuses on the “promises of the past” and is utopian in spirit since it “transcends the present actively seeking for a better world” (Koleva 425)� As I argue below, both Marina Achenbach’s and Marcia Bodrožić’s texts engage in such selective postsocialist nostalgic commemorations, foregrounding the utopian spirit permeating the socialist past� Commemorating this utopian impulse constitutes an important corrective to the present moment, due to its potential to help us think the future beyond a seemingly unchangeable global neoliberal capitalist present, which seems to have petrified after 1989 - Francis Fukuyama’s (in)famous declaration of the end of history comes to mind here� 4 As Eric Cazdyn and Imre Szeman argue in After Globalization, the pronounced lack of imagination of a better alternative future is intrinsic to our current reality marked by global capitalism� Even though the 2008 financial crisis and its effects have drawn renewed attention to issues such as capitalism and class, alternative visions for what comes after have yet to be formulated� According to Cazdyn and Szeman, this process is impeded by the fact that, by its very nature, “[g]lobalization involves a certain configuration of time - one that cannot imagine an ‘after’” (2)� In this light, postsocialist nostalgia in its utopian guise figures as a way to think beyond or outside of the current global capitalist system 5 and speaks to the fact that, as Leslie Adelson asserts, imaging the future is “one of the most pressing topics of our time” (213)� As Andreas Huyssen points out, turning to the past in order to mobilize it for the future in this manner, fits with a more general shift in utopian thinking from being oriented towards the future to being oriented towards the past, due to a loss of faith in modern narratives of progress in light of the failures of the often antagonistic political visions promising a better future throughout the twentieth century (8)� Rather, impulses for the future are now sought in a turn to remembrance, including in its nostalgic forms where “the exploration of the no-places, the exclusions, the blind spots on the maps of the past is often invested with utopian energies very much oriented toward the future” (88)� 6 In the following, I turn to two prose works by writers with a background from former Yugoslavia, i�e�, Marina Achenbach and Marcia Bodrožić, who both invoke memories of the potentials, the exclusions, the dreams and possibilities of the Yugoslav socialist project in order to critique the capitalist present and to make suggestions for a better European future� As I will show, both texts gesture towards the potential of some of the ideals of Yugoslav socialism, such 332 Maria Mayr as solidarity, economic justice, or alternatives to exclusive nationalism, drawing due attention to what Todorova recently called “the things that were recklessly washed away in the shock-therapy shower” of the end of the Cold War (Todorova, “Intimate Explorations” 117)� However, the crux of their nostalgic representations of the past lies in a more abstract commitment to hope and the ability to think beyond the capitalist status quo more generally� That is, both authors turn to the socialist past in order to affirm the utopian spirit more generally and to insist on the possibility that things could have been and can be different and better� Before turning to these texts, it is worth pointing out that they form part of a small but noticeable trend in recent literature published on the topic of former Yugoslavia to address and critique neoliberal capitalism, attributable to a generally growing awareness of its human cost post-2008� 7 As Anja Zeltner argues, Martin Mosebach’s 2014 Blutbuchenfest, for example, focuses attention on issues of social injustice and disparity in the capitalist system� The novel deals with the Bosnian cleaning lady Ivana, who is part of Europe’s “Söldner- und Lohnarbeitertums” (Mosebach 303), and it provides a scathing critique of Frankfurt’s high society at the outbreak of the 1990s wars (Zeltner 200—02)� A similar shift towards foregrounding economic questions can be found in Melinda Nadj Abonji’s 2017 novel Schildkrötensoldat� Like Mosebach’s, this novel is concerned with the 1990s wars, but rather than focusing on questions of ethnic conflict, as many previous works on the topic have done, Abonji here concerns herself with the impact of these wars on members of the economic underclass� The novel deals with the “Schicksal” of a mentally challenged young man who dies in the army (Abonji 11)� His cousin, whose first-person narrative frames the novel, questions if the course of his life can, however, truly be called his “fate” given that his plight has in large part to be attributed to the fact that “Armut nie folgenlos blieb” (11), making an economic argument, rather than a political one� Barbi Marković’s 2016 novel Superheldinnen provides another example� The novel’s plot revolves around three women who immigrated from former Yugoslavia to Vienna� As the narrator states, their story is typical for many immigrants from “ärmere[n] benachbarte[n] Länder[n]” who struggle to survive while continuing to hope that they could become part of the “bürgerlichen Mittelschicht […], der wir uns zugehörig fühlten, mit dem Herzen jedenfalls, nicht jedoch mit unserem Budget” (34)� Despite working multiple jobs, “relative Armut” was their “kleiner Fluch” (8)� However, two of the women are also blessed with magical powers which they eventually use to help their group by channeling their powers to win at a casino� The novel’s happy ending, however, oozes with irony given that the vicious circle of precarious work and poverty is not a “curse” but the result of growing structural economic inequalities, and that for the majority The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 333 of women like the ones described here, happy endings in the form of economic success truly would require supernatural intervention� Finally, Alida Bremer’s 2013 novel Olivas Garten focuses on a Croatian-German woman who returns to Croatia in order to deal with the restitution of family property in a corrupt Croatia of the early aughts� Like the just mentioned novels, it also can be read as a critique of the effects of the spread of neoliberal capitalism insofar as it provides a commentary on Croatia’s embrace of neoliberalism in the process of joining the European Union� It is within the context of this general move towards critical literary views of neoliberal capitalism in contemporary Europe that we can read Achenbach’s and Bodrožić’s texts as part of a larger effort by writers to engage with former Yugoslavia to mine the former federation’s socialist past for impulses towards a better future� As mentioned above, Marina Achenbach’s 2017 novel Ein Krokodil für Zagreb invokes specific socialist ideals and practices such as the value of the common good, social justice, and the transcending of national borders� 8 However, the novel is more effective in providing a more abstract commemoration of the spirit of hope and optimism of the early period of GDR and Yugoslav socialism, focusing on the mobilizing potential of what Achenbach calls “Zeitenwenden” (Achenbach, “Sommer nach dem Krieg” 73)� In a 2018 essay, Achenbach argues that today, disappointment in the failures of socialism as a political reality eclipses those other moments enabled by the socialist project, in which a better future was in fact a real possibility� As she argues, “[d]ie Enttäuschung ist zum vorherrschenden Topos geworden� Seltsam ist, wie ihm die hellen Momente geopfert werden, als seien sie ohne Bedeutung” (73)� According to Achenbach, the historical traces of these ‘brighter moments,’ some of which will be further discussed below, are in danger of becoming invisible “[a]ls hätte es das alles nicht gegeben� Als könnte es so etwas gar nicht geben” (73)� Commemorating and preserving the “Wissen über das Wesen von Zeitenwenden,” however, is crucial for Achenbach since it reminds us of “die Möglichkeit des Neuen” (73), of the fact that things could have been different in the past and therefore could be different today, thus allowing us to question the inevitability of the status quo� Achenbach’s novel Ein Krokodil für Zagreb can be read as an attempt to follow the traces of such brighter moments of hope for a better future in Europe’s twentieth-century history of socialism. Achenbach’s novel is a fictionalized account of her family’s history and begins with the birth of her mother Seka in Bosnia in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, and ends with her death in 2007� Seka, a young Bosnian journalist in Zagreb, falls in love with and marries the much older German émigré and socialist Ado von Achenbach� Forced to flee Zagreb as the Wehrmacht takes the city, the couple and their children are, by way of a bureaucratic twist, able to flee to Berlin� There, they find refuge with 334 Maria Mayr Ado’s mother, whose Jewish roots lead to her being disowned by the Nazis and to her eventual deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp� Seka is able to flee war-ravaged Berlin with her children to Ahrenshoop, a village on the peninsula of Fischland-Darß-Zingst on the Baltic Sea, where they are able to survive the war� Ado, who had to stay in Berlin, is eventually also deported as a forced laborer to Leuna but is able to escape during the Allied bombing of the city and to join his family towards the end of the war� With the arrival of the Russians in Ahrenshoop and the eventual establishment of the German Democratic Republic, the Achenbachs pick up on their prewar political commitment to the worker’s movement and dedicate their lives to the socialist cause, pouring their energies into building what they hope to become a more just and equal society in East Germany� However, Seka’s situation becomes increasingly precarious since as a Yugoslav, she becomes a suspect after Tito’s break with Stalin� After being harassed and imprisoned, she eventually leaves the GDR in 1957 for West Berlin with her children, in hopes of returning to Yugoslavia and building the socialist state there� However, she is eventually also disillusioned with Yugoslavia after she learns of Tito’s political prison on the island of Goli Otok, is herself harassed by the Yugoslav secret police, and told to leave Yugoslavia as a suspected spy for the GDR� She then settles in West Germany where she continues to be politically active in unions and protests until her death in 2007� As becomes obvious in this plot summary, Seka and her family were directly and painfully afflicted by the oppressive sides of European socialism as a political reality� In addition, the novel is replete with characters who fled the former GDR due to disillusionment or political oppression (see, e�g�, 172)� However, even though Seka is deeply disappointed by the ways in which socialism was implemented as a political system in Europe, she still believes in the message of socialism until her death: “Trotz aller Enttäuschungen, ich sehe im Sozialismus die ganz andere Vorstellung vom Leben - was der Mensch sein könnte - das war doch alles erst am Anfang - war noch ein Versuch - der durfte nicht sein� - Es ist die Welt nicht friedlicher geworden durch das Ende des Sozialismus” (208)� While neither Achenbach’s essay nor her novel explicitly spell out the political content of the socialist vision Seka keeps believing in, the novel does provide glimpses of what Achenbach means in various episodes alluding to historical moments of socialist activities throughout the twentieth century� For instance, the narrator briefly recounts her father Ado’s involvement in the 1918 November Revolution, specifically in the short-lived socialist Bavarian Räterepublik and the councils of workers, soldiers, and artists that were formed after the assassination of Kurt Eisner� The narrator does not provide any details as to what the political demands of the Räterepublik and councils were - which initially had the goal of a radical transformation of state and society in the socialist spirit The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 335 (Bischel)� Rather, the episode draws attention to the general feeling of hope that seemed palpable everywhere at the time, quoting Rainer Maria Rilke, who was one of the councils’ members, as having said: “So viel Wichtiges geschieht jetzt, so viel Hoffnung ist überall” (Achenbach, Krokodil 50)� Similarly, the novel sidelines concrete historical details in an episode recounting Seka’s stay in Zambia, where she befriended refuge anti-apartheid and resistance fighters from South Africa, Namibia and South Rhodesia who were involved in the South African liberation movements� Thus, the novel does not mention the prominent role that socialism - of the African, Soviet, Chinese, or scientific type - played on the African continent between the 1950s to the 1980s, when thirty-five out of fifty-three African nations self-identified as socialist at some point in their history (Pitcher and Askew 1—2)� Rather, the narrator once more highlights the hopeful quality of this historical moment marked by communal political action that united members from many nations, proclaiming: “So viele abgründige Erfahrungen, Hoffnungen, Mut und Solidarität, Schicksale, Wissensdurst” (Achenbach, Krokodil 187)� A similar celebration of an optimistic solidarity across borders can be found in the episode narrating the third annual World Festival of Youth in 1951 in East Berlin� The festival gathered around 26,000 youths from all over the world with diverse political, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, who were joined by many more youths from Germany, both East and West� 9 Rather than commenting on the ways in which the festival became part of the battle ground of the Cold War (Kotek 170), the narrator focuses on her own positive experience of this event, which she participated in as a child: “In diesen Wochen ist alles auf ihrer Seite, die Sommersonne, das Chaos, das Singen, die Nächte, das Marschieren, die Solidaritätsschwüre […] eine Pionierrepublik� Wir sitzen am Rand mit rumänischen, französischen, finnischen Mädchen, üben uns in Zeichensprache und großen Gefühlen” (Achenbach, Krokodil 123)� While the positive recollection of the youth festival is also negatively tinged by an ensuing description of how the narrator was reprimanded for breaking the ranks of her pioneer group, the passage overall celebrates “great emotions,” hope, community, and solidarity beyond national borders, ethnicities, and languages, which are also invoked in the episodes recounting the November Revolution, the South African liberation movements, and many other episodes recounting moments in the twentieth-century history of socialism� It follows that Achenbach’s novel can be read as an attempt to rewrite the socialist history of twentieth-century Europe (and Africa) as a history of hope and solidarity� Rather than focusing on the proclaimed wholesale failure of the socialist project, Achenbach provides a history of those ‘brighter moments’ when individuals joined together to form a movement, often beyond national borders, with the goal of creating a more just future� Her novel commemorates 336 Maria Mayr these individual initiatives, which took place besides - and sometimes despite - top-down governmental efforts to implement socialism in authoritarian and ultimately oppressive ways� In light of the above outlined future-oriented nature of socialist nostalgia, it should be clear that the fact that the future, which these individuals dreamt of and worked towards, never came to be, does not diminish the politically mobilizing potential of commemorating that which could have come about to be� Recalling the hope and concomitant solidarity of this socialist history opens up a window through which to glimpse a future outside of the logic of capitalism, given that it illustrates that change is possible� The novel’s goal to allow the past’s potential futures to inform the present is also furthered by the choice of tense� Its plot proceeds more or less chronologically over the course of 120 brief, descriptively titled episodic chapters� However, almost all events, whether they happened in 1917 or 2000, including the occasional flashbacks within the chronology, are told using the present tense� As Achenbach comments in an interview, the use of the present tense lets the narrated situation come into existence in the moment of being told and thereby allows the readers to fully empathize with the unfamiliar that is presented (Achenbach, “Schriftstellerin” n� pag�)� I would furthermore suggest that the use of the present tense also allows the hopes for the future embedded in the past to echo and resonate in the present and for the future� Using the present tense, the author can let the positive past experiences stand on their own, untouched by the hindsight of how history played itself out� Like Achenbach, Marica Bodrožić’s text Mein weißer Frieden (2014) foregrounds the socialist past as a reservoir for hope and as a reminder that thinking and acting otherwise remains a viable option for Europe� 10 In the text, the author recounts her travels through parts of postwar and post-Tuđman Croatia and Bosnia� The travelogue encompasses visits and conversations with family members and old friends, meetings with several war veterans, and conversations with rural and urban Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks from all walks of life, all packed into a pastiche of interviews, recollections, citations, and contemplative philosophical passages� Like Achenbach’s text, Bodrožić’s points to specific elements of the socialist vision that could inform today’s Europe, such as interethnic and nonexclusive national identities, solidarity, and a rejection of capitalist values� As with Achenbach, however, Bodrožić’s text shines in those moments when it foregrounds the socialist vision in a more abstract way as a twentieth-century legacy of hope� For example, the Partisan star on her pioneer’s hat figured as a “Botschafter zwischen Himmel und Erde,” which allowed her and others access to the “Land der neuen Träume! Das Land der gerechten Räume! ” (Bodrožić 321)� Although former Yugoslavia ultimately failed to become this envisioned The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 337 country of justice, Bodrožić points out that her childhood associations with the pioneer star survived in her thinking, and as such continue to build “Brücken zur Hoffnung und zu Utopien von einer besseren Welt” (321)� This celebration of the utopian spirit, of the ability to dream of and hope for a better world, of course does not constitute a defense of real existing Yugoslav socialism� In all of her writing, Bodrožić thematizes historical facts such as Tito’s labor camp on Goli Otok, the brutal oppression of any national sentiments, or the authoritarian and patriarchal regime (Mayr, “‘Überwältigende Vergangenheit’”; “Berlin’s Futurity”)� Reflecting on the ethnic nationalist causes for the 1990s wars and drawing parallels to her grandfather’s stories about WWII, Bodrožić explicitly cautions against the grand ideologies of the twentieth century, be it on the left or right� Contemplating a war-ravaged and mostly deserted Serb village in the Krajina, for example, she observes that “die verbrannten und aus den Regalen gerissenen Bücher der Dorfschule (die Tausende von Köpfen in Räume und Träume eingewiesen hatten)” are indicative of a world shaped by those who thought themselves in the possession of some truth, and that “[e]inmal so gefundene Wahrheiten sind tragischer als alle Lügen” (Bodrožić 322)� Rather, Bodrožić’s text invokes elements of the socialist past in order to guide us in thinking beyond the current status quo, commemorating Tito’s Yugoslavia as a moment in history when the hope and dreams that things could in fact be otherwise, was well and alive� As Bodrožić notes: Das alte Land, in dem ich stolze Pionierin war, gab es nicht mehr, aber in mir überlebte trotzdem das visionäre Wir, von dem ich lernte, dass es ein Wert an sich war� Es machte in der Kindheit einen starken Eindruck auf mich, dass die Erde, auf der wir lebten, nicht käuflich war und uns allen gehörte, was uns von den gierigen Kapitalisten unterschied, die immer noch mehr haben und besitzen wollten� Auch bin ich bis heute dankbar, in einem Land geboren zu sein, in dem ich nicht wie die meisten Menschen eine sich eindimensional auswirkende nationale Identität für selbstverständlich halten musste� Die zu Beginn anspruchsvolle Vision der Föderativen Republik wurde zwar nicht dauerhaft tragbare Wirklichkeit, veränderte jedoch das Denken vieler Menschen� (126) Having grown up in socialist Yugoslavia, Bodrožić internalized a set of values that keeps informing her thinking despite the fact that the vision of what the federal republic could have been, did not come to fruition� Her nostalgic memories of socialist Yugoslavia are thus primarily what Paolo Jedlowski calls “memories of the future,” which basically are “recollections of what individuals and groups expected [of the future] in the past” (121)� Rather than conceiving of these unrealized expectations or envisioned futures as failures if they did not come to pass, Jedlowski points out that for an individual, these possibilities and 338 Maria Mayr potentials nevertheless became part of his or her identity (124) and thus continue to influence them� In the same way, having once firmly believed in the values of the solidarity of the visionary “We,” having seen the anti-capitalist message implemented when the means of production were in the hands of workers, and having experienced a multidimensional national identity continue to influence what individuals who were raised in socialist Yugoslavia are able to conceive of as being valuable and possible today� That the socialist ideals of solidarity, anti-capitalist thinking, and multiethnic and multidimensional national identities invoked by Bodrožić are not merely naïve longings, a “Luxus der Freiheit” (Bodrožić 134) or “ein Privileg des Friedens” (288), becomes especially apparent in Bodrožić’s meeting with three women in postwar Sarajevo� All three women lived through the 1990s wars, survived and/ or eventually escaped the siege of Sarajevo, and returned to or continued to live in the city� With their different ethnicities, nationalities, and religions, or lack thereof, Bodrožić and the three women represent “der kleine Kern von dem, was Jugoslawien einmal war” (242)� Reflecting on the almost four-year long siege of Sarajevo (1992—1996), the women recount the spirit of solidarity during the siege, which was enabled by what one could call Yugoslav values� For example, the women cherish moments of interethnic solidarity, such as when a Muslim shares his few apples and flour with an Orthodox family by making them an apple strudel (251)� Faced with the violent consequences of exclusive nationalisms, the women draw attention to the many acts of solidarity across ethnic and national differences in besieged Sarajevo, celebrating the survival of the early Yugoslav model of multidimensional identities, where being a Yugoslav and a Croat, a convinced Catholic and a pioneer, were not seen as being mutually exclusive (127)� Similarly holding on to core values of socialism, the women, when asked about the most important lesson they took away from the war, point to their experiences of sharing and the unimportance of money� Vedrana, for instance, foregrounds the fact that people in Sarajevo shared absolutely everything during the war as having been her most important lesson (249—50) and Ismeta asserts that the most important thing she learned was that money is not life� The saying “Geld ist nicht Leben” is in fact repeated verbatim several times throughout Bodrozic’s work (159, 206, 259) and critically juxtaposed to the present moment “[i]m ehemaligen Jugoslawien wie in Europa,” where everything turns “wieder nur um die sichtbare und materielle Welt, in der nur das Geld wertvoll ist” (156)� Rewriting the “Sarajevo moment,” Bodrožić shows that the Sarajevo of the 1990s siege therefore actually did not signal the undoing of the dream of a Europe of peaceful coexistence and economic justice, which Tito’s socialist vision of a postcapitalist society based on solidarity and multidimensional national The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 339 identities represented for many� As she asserts, “Europa ist in diesem Sinne keineswegs in Sarajevo zu Grabe getragen worden, vielmehr hat es eine Lehr- und Sternstunde in Humanität gerade von jenen erhalten, die vor unser aller Augen ermordet werden sollten” (269)� Under the pressure of the siege, Sarajevo’s inhabitants once more crystalized the values that were at the core of former socialist Yugoslavia - and which are part and parcel of the repertoire of Europe’s past, available for building visions for a better future� For Bodrožić, this could be a future in which the ideal of Yugoslavia, the “Kern des hohen Ideals,” is carried forward by the “Idee eines vereinten Europas, in dem, genau wie im sozialistischen Vielvölkerstaat, verschiedene Sprachen, Religionen und Kulturen im Miteinander bestehen und gemeinsam wachsen sollen” (92)� 11 By highlighting some of the ideals that were driving the socialist project in former Yugoslavia and in their efforts to trace the outlines of a twentieth-century history of hope and utopian desire that inspired action towards building more just and equal societies, Achenbach’s and Bodrožić’s texts give the legacy of twentieth-century European socialism its due� They give voice and thus do justice to the often-sidelined lived and formative experiences of many of today’s citizens of Europe in all of its facets and therefore help shape a more ‘common’ common European memory� Equally important, they also suggest that this legacy should be mobilized for building a more equal and just European future that embraces different national, religious, or ethnic identities� After all, to conclude with one of Tanja Petrović’s insightful observations regarding the futurity of Yugonostalgia, the values of the socialist epoch, such as “Antifaschismus, Solidarität, Menschenrechte und soziale Sicherheit” are not only universal but also quintessentially European, they are the very values “auf denen das Narrativ der europäischen Aufklärung beruht” (162)� Notes 1 For a variety of positions on this issue, see Assmann; Eder and Spohn; Felski; Mälksoo; Neumayer; Pakier and Stråth; Saunders; Wawrzyniak and Pakier; Zombory� 2 This list is based in part on my research in the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach and the Literaturhaus Wien, which was in part supported by funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada� 3 For example, Marica Bodrožić won the European Union Prize for Literature for Germany (2013) and the Literaturpreis der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2015); Saša Stanišić’s work was on the long-list and short-list of the Deutscher Buchpreis (2006, 2014), and won the Preis der Leipziger 340 Maria Mayr Buchmesse (2014); and Melinda Nadj Abonji won the Deutscher and the Schweizer Buchpreis (both in 2010)� 4 Todorova points out that the end of communism as utopia actually can be dated well before 1989 to the failed revolutions of 1957 and then 1968, when it “in the words of one of its greatest analysts, the late Polish philosopher Lezsek Kalonkowski, ‘seized to be an intellectual issue and was transformed into a power problem’” (Todorova 10)� 5 In his study of contemporary American utopian fiction Hope Isn’t Stupid (2017), informed amongst others by Fredric Jameson, Grattan asserts that this is the task of contemporary utopian fiction more generally, arguing that today “one of the fundamental tasks of utopian writing and thinking is to chart the emergence of the possibility to think alternatives, […] while its continued existence as a form acts as a repudiation of the lack of alternatives to global capitalism” (14)� 6 Svetlana Boym also argues that some forms of nostalgia are “for the unrealized dreams of the past and visions of the future that became obsolete” (The Future of Nostalgia xvi), which is echoed by Silke Arnold-de Simine who argues that nostalgia often constitutes “a yearning for the dreams and possibilities that never became reality” and can provide “an impetus for future change” (56)� 7 I rely here on David Harvey’s often-cited definition of neo-liberalism as a “theory of political economic practices proposing that human well-being can best be advanced by the maximization of entrepreneurial freedoms within an institutional framework characterized by private property rights, individual liberty, unencumbered markets, and free trade� The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional framework appropriate to such practices� […] But beyond these tasks the state should not venture” (Harvey 22—23)� 8 Marina Achenbach was born in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1939, and grew up in the former German Democratic Republic� She is a translator from Russian and Serbo-Croatian, a documentary maker, and a co-founder and journalist for the Berlin weekly der Freitag� 9 Achenbach does not draw any attention to the fact that this gathering was accused of being mere socialist propaganda and resulted in violent clashes between the youth and West Berlin police� 10 Bodrožić was born in 1973 in Svib, in today’s Croatia, and immigrated to Germany in 1983� Her highly poetic and philosophical work includes translations, documentaries, newspaper articles, poetry, short stories, and novels, and has gathered numerous literary prizes and honours, including the The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 341 European Union Prize for Literature� For an updated list, see her website at http: / / www�marica-bodrozic�de/ auszeichnungen/ >� 11 While a discussion of this issue is unfortunately beyond the scope of this paper, it is important to point out that for Bodrožić, the realization of this future Europe, her “weißer Frieden,” is only possible via a radical rethinking of the role of the individual in its relationship to the past� As she writes: “Nicht das jugoslawische Ideal war der Denkfehler im System, sondern der grundlegende Fehlschluss, dass dieses Ideal im Kollektiv durchführbar ist� Nur im Einzelnen wird es zur Möglichkeit� Solange die Vergangenheit ins uns spricht und schreibt und denkt, kann kein Ideal verwirklicht werden” (146)� Works Cited Abonji, Melinda Nadj� Schildkrötensoldat: Roman� Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2017� Achenbach, Marina� Ein Krokodil für Zagreb: Roman� Hamburg: Edition Nautilus GmbH, 2017� —� “Der Sommer nach dem Krieg�” Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 12�2 (2018): 67—73� Achenbach, Marina� Interview by Benjamin Grau� Blog: Klassik Stiftung Weimar� Klassik Stiftung Weimar, 6 Nov� 2017� Web� 4 April 2018� Adelson, Leslie A� “Futurity Now: An Introduction�” Germanic Review 88�3 (2013): 213—18� Arnold-de Simine, Silke� Mediating Memory in the Museum: Trauma, Empathy, Nostalgia� Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013� Assmann, Aleida� “Europe’s Divided Memory�” Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe� Ed� Uilleam Blacker, Alexander Etkind and Julie Fedor� New York: Palgrave, 2013� 25—42� Beronja, Vlad, and Stijn Vervaet� “Introduction�” Post-Yugoslav Constellations: Archive, Memory, and Trauma in Contemporary Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian Literature and Culture� Ed� Vlad Beronja and Stijn Vervaet� Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016� 1—20� Bischel, Matthias� “Räterepublik Baiern (1919)�” Historisches Lexikon Bayerns� Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 22 Mar� 2019� Web� 9 May 2019� Bodrožić, Marica� Mein weißer Frieden� Munich: Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 2014� Borodziej, Wlodzimierz� “Das Haus der europäischen Geschichte: Ein Erinnerungskonzept mit dem Mut zur Lücke�” Arbeit am europäischen Gedächtnis: Diktaturerfahrung und Demokratieentwicklung� Ed� Hans-Joachim Knigge, Volkhard Mählert and Ulrich Veen� Cologne: Böhlau, 2011� 139—46� Boym, Svetlana� The Future of Nostalgia� New York: Basic Books, 2002� Bremer, Alida� Olivas Garten: Roman� Cologne: Eichborn Verlag, 2013� Cazdyn, Eric, and Imre Szeman� After Globalization� West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011� 342 Maria Mayr Demiragić, Ajla� “What Remains of Mostar? : Archive and Witness in Marsela Sunjić’s Goodnight, City�” Post-Yugoslav Constellations: Archive, Memory, and Trauma in Contemporary Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Literature and Culture� Ed� Vladislav Beronja and Stijn Vervaet� Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016� 129—48� Eder, Klaus, and Willfried Spohn� Collective Memory and European Identity: The Effects of Integration and Enlargement� Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005� European Parliament� “European Parliament Resolution of 2 April 2009 on European Conscience and Totalitarianism�” 8 Dec� 2009� Web� 30 Jan� 2019� Felski, Rita� “Introduction: A New Europe�” New Literary History 43�4 (2012): v—xv� Grattan, Sean Austin� Hope Isn’t Stupid: Utopian Affects in Contemporary American Literature� Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2017� Hamm, Ingrid� “Vorwort: Erlesenes Europa�” Europa liest - Literatur in Europa� Kulturreport: Fortschritt Europa 3 (2010): 4� Harvey, David� “Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction�” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 610�1 (2007): 22—44� Husanovic, Jasmina� Između Traume, Imaginacije i Nade: Kritički Ogledi o Kulturnoj Produkciji i Emandpativnoj Politici [Between Trauma, Imagination and Hope: Critical Reflections on Cultural Production and Emancipatory Politics]� Belgrade: Fabrika knjiga, 2009� Huyssen, Andreas� Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia� New York, NY: Routledge, 1995� Jedlowski, Paolo� “Memories of the Future�” Routledge International Handbook of Memory Studies� Ed� Trever Hagen and Anna Lisa Tota� London: Routledge, 2016� 121—30� Koleva, Daniela� “Hope for the Past? Postsocialist Nostalgia 20 Years Later�” 20 Years after the Collapse of Communism: Expectations, Achievements and Disillusions of 1989� Ed� Nicolas Hayoz, Leszek Jesien and Daniela Koleva� Oxford: Peter Lang, 2011� Kolstø, Pål� “Identifying with the Old or the New State: Nation-Building vs� Yugonostalgia in the Yugoslav Successor States�” Nations & Nationalism 20�4 (2014): 760—81� Kotek, Joel� “Youth Organizations as a Battlefield in the Cold War�” The Cultural Cold War in Western Europe, 1945—60� Ed� Hans Krabbendam and Giles Scott-Smith� London: Frank Cass, 2003� 168—91� Leggewie, Claus, and Anne Lang� Der Kampf um die europäische Erinnerung: Ein Schlachtfeld wird besichtigt� Munich: C�H� Beck, 2011� Mälksoo, Maria� “Nesting Orientalisms at War: World War II and the ‘Memory War’ in Eastern Europe�” Orientalism and War� Ed� Tarak Barkawi and Keith Stanski� New York, NY: Columbia UP, 2013� 177—96� Marković, Barbi� Superheldinnen: Roman� Salzburg: Residenz, 2016� Mayr, Maria� “Berlin’s Futurity in Zafer Şenocak’s Gefährliche Verwandtschaft (1998) and Marica Bodrožić’s Kirschholz und alte Gefühle (2012)�” Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 51�4 (2015): 357—77� —� “‘Überwältigende Vergangenheit’: Questioning European Identity in Contemporary German-Language Literature about the Former Yugoslavia�” Re-Forming the Nation in Literature and Film� Ed� Julian Preece� Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014� 229—48� The European Future of Postsocialist Nostalgia 343 Messner, Elena� “Postjugoslawische Exil- und Migrationserzählungen�” Mehrsprachigkeit in Zentraleuropa: Zur Geschichte einer literarischen und kulturellen Chance� Ed� András Balogh and Christoph Leitgeb� Vienna: Praesens Verlag, 2012� 305—19� Mora, Terézia� Alle Tage: Roman� Munich: Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 2004� Mosebach, Martin� Das Blutbuchenfest: Roman� Munich: Carl Hanser, 2014� Navracsics, Tibor� “Foreword�” European Union Prize for Literature: Twelve Winning Authors 2017� euprizeliterature.eu� The European Commission, n�d� Web� 30 Jan� 2019� Neumayer, Laure� “Integrating the Central European Past into a Common Narrative: The Mobilizations Around the ‘Crimes of Communism’ in the European Parliament�” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 23�3 (2015): 344—63� Pakier, Małgorzata, and Bo Stråth� A European Memory? Contested Histories and Politics of Remembrance� New York: Berghahn Books, 2010� Pitcher, M� Anne, and Kelly M� Askew� “African Socialisms and Postsocialisms�” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 76�1 (2006): 1—14� Petrović, Tanja� Yuropa: Das jugoslawische Erbe und Zukunftsstrategien in postjugoslawischen Gesellschaften� Trans� Aleksandra Bajazetov� Berlin: Verbrecher, 2015� Previšić, Boris� Literatur topographiert: Der Balkan und die postjugoslawischen Kriege im Fadenkreuz des Erzählens� Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2014� Rigney, Ann� “The Dynamics of Remembrance: Texts Between Monumentality and Morphing�” Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook� Ed� Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning� Berlin: De Gruyter, 2008� 345—56� Ristović, Milan� “Wem gehört Geschichte? Konkurrierende Erinnerungen an Jugoslawien�” Europa und sein Osten: Geschichtskulturelle Herausforderungen� Ed� Wlodzimierz Borodziej and Joachim von Puttkamer� Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2012� 105—15� Saunders, Anna� “Towards a European Mode of Cultural Imaginary? ” Essence and Margin: National Identities and Collective Memories in Contemporary European Culture� Ed� Laura Rorato and Anna Saunders� Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009� 9—20� Todorova, Maria� “Intimate Explorations of Postsocialist Lives�” Current History 117 (2018): 117—19� —� “Nostalgia - The Reverse Side of Balkanism�” Europa und sein Osten: Geschichtskulturelle Herausforderungen� Ed� Wlodzimierz Borodziej and Joachim von Puttkamer� Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2012� 61—74� Velikonja, Mitja� “Lost in Transition: Nostalgia for Socialism in Post-Socialist Countries�” East European Politics & Societies 23�4 (2009): 535—51� —� Titostalgia: A Study of Nostalgia for Josip Broz� Trans� Olga Vuković� Ljubljana: Peace Institute, 2008� Wawrzyniak, Joanna, and Małgorzata Pakier� “Memory Studies in Eastern Europe: Key Issues and Future Perspectives�” Polish Sociological Review 183 (2013): 257—79� Zeltner, Anja� “Wem gehört die Geschichte des Krieges? Die Darstellung der postjugoslawischen Kriege in deutsch- und schwedischsprachiger Literatur�” Diss� FAU, 2017� Web� 30 Jan� 2019� Zombory, Máté� “The Birth of the Memory of Communism: Memorial Museums in Europe�” Nationalities Papers 45�6 (2017): 1028—46� Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU: Refugees in Germany as Europeans3 4 5 Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU: Refugees in Germany as Europeans Marike Janzen University of Kansas Abstract: In her essay, Marike Janzen calls for the need to reframe the issue of refugee integration or marginalization in Europe away from one defined either by a particular state’s strictures for accommodating migrants or alienation from the forced migrant’s sense of identity, to one that takes into account migrants’ implication within a multinational legal framework� To do so, she draws on Étienne Balibar’s insight into the constitutive role of Europe’s “border zone�” According to Balibar, this zone is not merely to be found at Europe’s external borders but exists any place where belonging in the E�U� is regulated, and it is central, not marginal, to conceptions of who may claim to be a European subject� Janzen shows how two recent documentary works about refugees seeking asylum in Germany, Benjamin Kahlmeyer’s 2014 film “Die Unsichtbaren” and Lola Arias’s 2018 play “What They Want to Hear,” exemplify how mechanisms of exclusion can occasion forms of fluency that reflect a subject’s incorporation into an E�U� legal regime, if not their acceptance into a specific state� Keywords: documentary, asylum, border zone, refugee, E�U�, Benjamin Kahlmeyer, Lola Arias In his 2014 documentary film Die Unsichtbaren, Benjamin Kahlmeyer traces the experiences of four men from Syria, Kenya, and Cameroon at a refugee reception center in the German town of Eisenhüttenstadt in the state of Brandenburg� There, the men wait for their applications for asylum in Germany to be processed� At the end of the film, Gedeon, from Cameroon, reads the letter rejecting his application and announcing his imminent deportation to Spain out loud in halting German� We hear that his “Antrag wird als unzulässig abgelehnt” and the “Abschiebung [nach Spanien] wird angeordnet�” Following the Dublin Regu- 346 Marike Janzen lation, which mandates that refugees apply for asylum in the European country they first enter, Gedeon must submit his application in Spain� 1 Although he has only been in Germany for a short time, Gedeon’s ability to manage German “bureaucratese” is notable, a fact he evidently recognizes as he remarks with a defeated shrug: “Not too long ago I couldn’t imagine that I would one day be able to read in German� Now I do it quite well�” 2 The scene, which demonstrates Gedeon’s ability to navigate the language of a country in which he is a stranger and where he is not permitted to stay, highlights a paradox at work in EU efforts to regulate immigration: mechanisms of exclusion themselves can occasion forms of fluency that reflect a subject’s incorporation into an EU legal regime, if not their acceptance into a specific state� My argument that Gedeon’s newly developed ability to read a deportation order in German exemplifies a form of incorporation into the EU reveals limitations in discourses about the migrants’ relationship to the place where they seek asylum� These position the migrant either as an individual who can potentially become part of the nation, or as a subject alienated by the parameters of asylum regulation� For example, the German government promotes a liberal humanist vision of migrant “Integration,” by which immigrants are incorporated into the national story� Specifically, “Integration” refers to state efforts aimed at cultivating a sense that migrants belong in Germany through initiatives that promote non-citizens and citizens sharing their perspectives and experiences with each other - a process seen as mutually enriching for both groups� 3 This view provides the rationale for state-funded cultural projects that aim to teach Germans about immigrants and teach immigrants about Germany and its traditions� Such projects include the radio program “Radio Globale” in Oldenburg, which is produced primarily by recent immigrants to Germany for the region’s listeners� “Radio Globale,” supported by the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF) and aired on the publicly funded radio station “Oldenburg Eins,” allows migrants to practice German and learn technical skills while sharing their stories about their places of origin and perceptions of Germany with a German public (“Radio Globale”)� Yet this “Integration” framework, which relies on migrants’ participation in a nation’s public sphere, cannot incorporate individuals like Gedeon who speak German by virtue of having spent time in the nation, but whose voice will not have been heard in a German public sphere� If a national “Integration” paradigm does not capture Gedeon’s experience within Germany, neither does a literary critical one that highlights migrants’ alienation by a European asylum regime� In their work on asylum narratives, Agnes Woolley and Alison Jeffers, respectively, highlight the way that the asylum-seeking process requires migrants to align their subjectivity with a specific legal framework� In this context, what makes a subject legible is an “asylum Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 347 script” in which one is either credible and thus deserving of protection, or fraudulent in one’s claims, and not a legitimate “refugee” according to the language of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees� Thus, the asylum seeker must undergo a “bureaucratic performance” ( Jeffers 35) at the border through which she is “produced [as a refugee]” (37), an identity that may lead to the desired protection, but that, at the same time, requires the erasure of other identities (Woolley 381, Jeffers 38)� From this perspective, asylum seekers are like characters in a Kafka story in which bureaucratic processes supplant individual experience as the measure of reality� Woolley’s and Jeffers’ analyses are crucial for identifying the legal discourses through which migrants are included or excluded from a state in which they seek asylum� Yet their presentation of the issue isolates the asylum seeker as if they were actually outside the border-enforcing mechanisms they must traverse� To examine the situation in this way is to run the risk of reinforcing the asylum seeker’s passivity and lack of knowledge� In other words, highlighting the alienating effect of border bureaucracy leaves no room to investigate its role in shaping migrant subjectivity in instances like those of Gedeon’s language learning� And yet, Gedeon’s observation that he never imagined he would be able to read German reflects an awareness about the way that the requirements of asylum bureaucracy shape his sense of self� In this essay, I call for the need to reframe the issue of refugee integration or marginalization in Europe away from one defined either by a particular state’s strictures for accommodating migrants or alienation from the forced migrants’ sense of identity, to one that takes into account migrants’ implication within a multiand intranational legal regime� This reveals regulations themselves - those of Europe as much as any member state - as the “culture” to which migrants are assimilated, rather than any national one� Such a shift in focus is important for three reasons� First, it reflects the scaled and nested legal reality in which forced migrants live� They must negotiate how a system of states, the EU, defines their existence in Europe as well as the national and regional laws related to asylum seekers within each of the EU member states� Such a focus on migrants’ relationship to the European legal framework - even as they may seek asylum in Brandenburg or Bavaria - exhibits the kind of “scalar attentiveness” to the intersection of “national, […]-supranational, and […] transnational” elements required to understand the “complexity” of migration in Europe today (Gökturk and Gramling 218)� Second, following this aspect of migrants’ experience recognizes the knowledge that they develop as they navigate EU regulations� While many migrants exist in a state of extreme precarity characterized by their “suspension” from networks that offer protection from “incessant economic and social insecurity” (Baker 507), viewing them as subjects who gain 348 Marike Janzen knowledge about how to navigate border mechanisms, and thus as possessing expertise about border managament protocols, pushes against a construction of forced migrants only as victims� Far from remaining bewildered strangers, many migrants develop an experiential understanding of asylum regimes that citizens of European states may not begin to match� Third, to focus on migrants’ position vis-à-vis an EU legal framework rather than their belonging or non-belonging within a state, may be a way to foster awareness of connections between a state’s citizens and non-citizens that exist by virtue of living within the same regulatory apparatus� Such connections are not visible from a humanist perspective that establishes commonalities between people based on their inherent qualities as humans or their cultural practices more traditionally conceived, rather than their respective relationships to the same politico-legal framework� To argue for the importance of viewing Europe’s mechanisms of exclusion as elements that shape the European subject, rather than as policies that simply demarcate the European from the non-European, I draw on Étienne Balibar’s insight into the constitutive role of Europe’s “border zone�” According to Balibar, this zone is not merely to be found at Europe’s external borders, but exists any place where belonging in the EU is regulated, and it is central, not marginal, to conceptions of who may claim to be a European subject� I bring Balibar’s view to bear on two recent documentary works about refugees in Germany, the above-mentioned film by Kahlmeyer, Die Unsichtbaren, and Lola Arias’s 2018 play “What They Want to Hear” about a Syrian man’s attempt to gain asylum in Bavaria� These works, which appeared during a span of time in which Germany had the highest number of people applying for asylum than any other country in the EU, showcase migrants’ subject formation within EU asylum regulations (“Migration to Europe”)� Reviews of both pieces have noted how they depict the dehumanizing nature of asylum bureaucracy - a major effect of which is to keep people out of a nation where they would like to stay� 4 I argue, however, that the film and the play’s documentation of the spaces, processes, and agents that forced migrants must negotiate - most significantly, their confrontation with the bureaucrats who make asylum decisions at their office desks - reveals the way that the border forms subjects� In a 1999 essay titled “At the Borders of Europe,” Balibar asserts that belonging in Europe must be conceptualized in terms of the border zones shot through it� Characterizations of Europe as either a haven for all to enjoy democratically established human rights (a demos), or as a “fortress” that bars entrance to those deemed non-European (an ethnos), are insufficient, as it is the tension between these two impulses that define it� Indeed, Balibar’s understanding of Europe as a space shaped by both “modes of inclusion and exclusion” reflects the way Gede- Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 349 on and his peers who seek refuge in Europe and confront its mechanisms of gatekeeping, experience Europe and thus can be seen as European subjects (3)� I do not intend to equate the conditions for asylum seekers in distinct German regions, nor do I claim that the contexts of the works I focus on are representative of Europe� Instead, my study serves as a case study that aims to show how narratives about asylum seekers can be read as narratives about negotiating a European identity� In his essay, Balibar identifies this tension of defining what constitutes the “inside” and “outside” of Europe as one that has shaped the territory since the seventeenth century, when “Europe” came to replace “Christendom” as the “designation of the whole of the relations of force and trade among nations or sovereign states, whose balance of power was materialized in the negotiated establishment of borders” (7)� According to Balibar, the way that Europe reacted to the Balkan Wars, the events that serve as the point of departure for his reflections, are only a more recent expression of the contradictions that comprise Europe� On the one hand, European intervention in the conflict was motivated by the need to “block a crime against humanity” in a space exterior to Europe, and that Europe continued to define as “Other” even after the conflict� On the other hand, this intervention was justified by the idea that “Europe could not accept genocidal population deportation on its own soil” (4)� In other words, for Balibar, war and its aftermath in the former Yugoslavia exemplifies how Europe is a negotiation between what constitutes belonging or not-belonging within it� Though written some twenty years ago, Balibar’s insight that Europe exists at the sites where distinctions between Europe and its “Others” are negotiated remains relevant for making sense of debates that have intensified since the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015 about who may and who may not belong in Europe� 5 Thus, Europe defines itself in part as a union of states committed to upholding the 1951 Geneva Convention on the protection of refugees, a space prepared to welcome those rejected elsewhere� At the same time, Europe is a union of nation states, each of which plays a part in deciding who may legitimately seek refuge there, and who must remain external to it� There is obviously a great tension at work in Europe’s assertion of its identity as a haven for refugees, and its enforcement of movement through its borders� The refugee reception centers, the desks at which asylum seekers encounter the “Entscheider” who judge their relative belonging within Europe, and the negotiation and appeal of deportation orders, are the very spaces and acts requiring attention in order to understand what Europe is and who its subjects are� These are the contexts where, according to Balibar, we see most clearly the interrelationship of “politico-economic power” and “collective imagination” (4), as well as the stakes of this relationship� For this reason, border zones, not only 350 Marike Janzen geographical boundaries but also the administrative spaces where “exclusion” and “inclusion” are negotiated, are crucial to understanding what the common project of Europe can be: “border areas […] are not marginal to the constitution of a public sphere but rather are at the center” (2)� Balibar’s characterization of Europe is not a mandate to accept the violence of exclusion� Instead, his call to conceptualize a “European people” as a collectivity that works to “[resolve] […] the contradictions that run through it” functions to critique standards of European-ness based on cultural uniformity or primordial origins that exacerbate xenophobia (2)� The film Die Unsichtbaren and the play “What They Want to Hear” represent European border zones located at an immigrant reception center in Eisenhüttenstadt, in the state of Brandenburg, and in various migration offices in and near Munich, in Bavaria� These are but a few of the many places throughout Europe where, in Balibar’s words, “the movement of information, people, and things is happening and is controlled,” places, he argues, we must focus on in order to understand what constitutes Europe (1)� The documentary works are among multiple cultural artifacts produced in recent years, both in Germany and other EU states, that represent how forced migrants negotiate Europe’s border zones� 6 Such depictions of refugees’ relationship to Europe’s policing of its borders offer rich material for studying the nature of migrant subjectivity as European subjectivity� If, as Balibar suggests, the border zone constitutes Europe, then these works provide insight into the way the migrants who pass through it become European in the sense that they become subjects of the “technocratic” apparatus that governs belonging within Europe as a legal space (2)� In what follows, I examine how Die Unsichtbaren and “What They Want to Hear” depict subjects and communities that form at the edge of inclusion or exclusion in the EU� Each piece highlights the official subject positions that, as Woolley and Jeffers argue, border zones produce� These include the migrant who has declared herself an “asylum seeker” and can thus be introduced into the transand intrastate asylum-granting process, as well as the official who interviews the asylum seeker and determines the validity of her request for protection, known in Germany as “Entscheiderinnen und Entscheider” (“Entscheiderinnen”)� Specifically, I focus on the way that these works reveal asylum seekers to be agents who gain expertise in the conditions and expectations present within - and because of - the contingent condition of the EU’s border zone� While they may express feeling helpless within the asylum-seeking system, they are not portrayed as its hapless or passive victims� In this way, they can be understood as subjects shaped via Europe, not as individuals who are extraneous to the region and thus excisable from it� Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 351 As I mentioned above, Kahlmeyer’s Die Unsichtbaren provides insight into the experiences of asylum seekers temporarily housed in the “Erstaufnahmezentrum” in Eisenhüttenstadt, a town located on Germany’s border with Poland� The film opens by revealing the subjectivities that this particular border zone creates� On one side there are the four migrant men who are made legible to the EU asylum bureaucracy as they seek inclusion into the EU as refugees� We see their initial declarations of “Asyl” at the center’s front gate, and follow how their existence is documented through biometric data and the questionnaires the men complete with the help of translators� On the other side are the bureaucrats who process these asylum seekers’ claims� We hear two of them talk about their work checking with EU-wide databases to determine whether the migrants have been apprehended in other EU states before coming to Germany, or the preparation required for them to conduct an asylum interview� Crucially, the film foregrounds the way that the migrants, who bear the identity of asylum seekers in the refugee center of Eisenhüttenstadt, are also agents who seek out and share their knowledge about how to navigate the expectations of this border zone� The interview desk, where the asylum seeker sits across from the “Entscheider” is the most explicit manifestation of the zone as a space of potential inclusion or exclusion, and the protagonists of Kahlmeyer’s film desperately want to know how to perform in that space� The migrants’ preparation for this performance is not isolated to learning abstract legal codes� Rather, the expertise they gather is seen as embedded within interlocking circles of the common language and experiences that migrants share from their home communities, the history, geography, and language that shapes the physical condition of their places of refuge, and EU and German asylum law, including regional-level practices governing care of migrants� The interrelationship between the multiple legal parameters shaping the lives of people who request asylum in Germany bears spelling out here� On one level is the Common European Asylum System (C�E�A�S�), which establishes standards for granting asylum across EU member states based on the 1951 Geneva Convention on the protection of refugees� These standards include the Dublin Regulation, which mandates that claims of asylum be made in the country in which a migrant first entered Europe� The C�E�A�S also coordinates the European Asylum Dactyloscopy Database, or EURODAC, that contains all fingerprints of any person claiming asylum in any EU country (“Identification of Applicants”)� The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, the BAMF, establishes nationwide asylum processing guidelines, including those that stipulate how to follow the Dublin Regulation, and coordinates the distribution of asylum claimants across the various German Bundesländer, or states (“Ablauf des Asylverfahrens”)� The states, in turn, take charge of “[accommodating] asylum-seekers,” a responsibility that 352 Marike Janzen includes running “refugee reception centers” such as the one in Eisenhüttenstadt (Laubenthal 11)� Each state decides how to administer these centers, but they all follow federal parameters for deciding the kind of status an asylum seeker may be granted� Coordination between these various spheres of law and policy that govern asylee processing is not seamless� Even though EU law takes precedence over nation-state law (EUR-Lex), which, in turn, takes precedence over regional law, enforcing this hierarchy can be a lengthy process, and states and regions do defy EU guidelines for implementing asylum regulations with minimal risk of sanction� 7 The European subject of the border zone is thus the expression of an unstable, multitiered and multinational asylum regime as enforced in the subject’s home community� In Die Unsichtbaren, Kahlmeyer shows how migrants’ position in the EU is shaped through these interlocking legal arenas� He does so via three sets of relationships between asylum seekers that develop within the context of the Eisenhüttenstadt reception center as the men wait and prepare for their asylum interviews� These include the friendship of the Kenyans Peter and Matthew, the interaction of Gedeon with fellow asylum seekers from Africa, and Wasim’s connection with fellow Syrians� Peter and Matthew, both from Kenya, form a relationship as mentor and mentee� Peter, who is middle-aged, hopes to be able to join his wife and children who are living in Sweden� He takes the younger Matthew, who wants asylum in Germany, under his wing� The location of the reception center both on the eastern edge of Germany and at the center of the EU asylum regime shapes their friendship� There is little for migrants to do as they wait for their asylum claims to be processed, and the former run-down barracks on the outskirts of town offer few options to pass the time� To ease their boredom, Peter and Matthew buy a used television set that will allow them to play video games� This requires the men to navigate the logistics of making phone calls in German and finding their way, on foot, into town to purchase it� In this act of purchasing the TV to survive the liminal space of the border zone, the Kenyan men have had to exercise their knowledge of a specific German linguistic and geographic context� A central bonding moment for Peter and Matthew occurs when Peter helps Matthew prepare for his asylum interview� In this scene, the two are talking in what appears to be Peter’s room about Matthew’s upcoming appointment with the “Entscheider�” Matthew is nervously fiddling with his phone, waiting for a call from someone he hopes can give him advice� Commenting on yet another asylum seeker’s interview, Matthew says “it was over pretty quickly� You know these people, they confuse you� […] It scares me�” Peter, perhaps a generation older than Matthew, seeks to calm him with his expertise about the procedure: “Just talk like we’re doing now, except that other people will be asking ques- Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 353 tions� […]- They’ll want exact details: dates, month, which year, which flight� Those kinds of things, that’s what you’ll tell them� […] That’s all� […] I know you’ll make it, just tell them the main basic points�” The barren room in the old barracks where soldiers were trained to protect the borders of Cold War East Germany are now the space where Kenyans teach each other how to gain entrance into a Europe that had, in the language of the statue commemorating the 1985 Schengen agreement - located in Schengen, Luxembourg - “[suppressed its] internal borders” (Traynor)� A second group of friends comprises Gedeon and fellow francophone Africans� In a poignant scene, they undertake an excursion to a nearby lake� Here we see how the men’s connection through their common history of fleeing their homes and their residence in the refugee reception center informs their understanding of the region where they seek to pass time until their interviews that will determine whether or not they can stay in Germany, or even in Europe� Though there is a bus to the lake, the men are not sure which direction they should go, nor do they know when the bus will come� They decide to walk� Once there, they take in the view� They note that the shore opposite to them must be Poland: “If our dream of living in Germany doesn’t come true,” one man says, “we’ll swim to the other side�” Even though, in a legal sense, their situations would not change in Poland since they would still be in the EU and subject to similar asylum law as in Germany, the men apply their experience of crossing a body of water in order to cross a border to their situation in Germany� Talk of border and sea crossings turns Gedeon despondent as he remembers his own flight across water from Morocco to Spain� He recalls the deaths of fellow migrants, and wonders if his decision to leave home wasn’t a stupid one� “We didn’t have a choice,” his friends tell him, in an effort to stop him from second-guessing his decision to flee Cameroon� As is the case with Peter and Matthew who draw on new skills in order to buy a TV, Gedeon’s outing with his friends to a new place shows how asylum seekers are pushed to acquire knowledge to manage their lives in the border zone� At the same time, the scene depicts how these men, who exist in a state suspended between inclusion and exclusion as they await asylum determinations, interpret their new surroundings through their experience of Europe as constituting border zones that constantly threaten expulsion� They implicitly make sense of the relationship between two neighboring states in Europe, Germany and Poland, in terms of their fear of rejection by Germany and their hope that crossing to Poland might result in the kind of refuge they sought when they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar� The third set of relationships we see in Die Unsichtbaren is Wasim’s interaction with fellow Syrians and Arabic speakers� In a scene that mirrors Peter 354 Marike Janzen and Matthew’s conversation about how to prepare for the asylum interview, we see Wasim talking with another Arabic-speaking asylum seeker in one of the men’s private rooms� Wasim is dressed well� He is wearing a white shirt with cuff links, he has a notebook open in front of him, and he is holding a nice pen: he possesses the affect of a candidate preparing for a job interview� Wasim is worried, because he first entered Europe in Italy� He recites the Dublin II mandate to his interlocutor: “Every person that enters a European country and has his fingerprints taken there has to apply for asylum in that country�” His companion responds with special insight into the situation for Syrians: “Here in Germany there are exceptions for Syrians� In the past month special laws were introduced for Syrians, and even if something happens, we still have lawyers�” Wasim is grateful for the information� He did not know he could access legal help if necessary� The film’s narrative arc culminates in Matthew’s asylum interview: the precise moment in which his ability to remain in Germany, and in Europe, is being assessed� We learn that Matthew entered Germany with a temporary work permit, but for some reason, this was revoked and he remained living and working in Germany illegally� He is not granted asylum because of this infraction, and, as the viewer learns, neither are most of the men depicted in the film� Yet, according to Balibar’s understanding of Europe as a space where belonging is negotiated, rather than a place for those who have measured up to a specific standard, this rejection of asylum does not stand as the sole definition of Matthew’s relationship to Europe� Following this view, we can see the protagonists of the film as representatives of what, in Balibar’s view, defines Europe� Though they may be “invisible” to Europeans whose mobility is not limited by asylum regulations - a status suggested by the film’s title Die Unsichtbaren - they are not external to Europe� Instead, they have acquired first-hand knowledge about the tension between inclusion and exclusion that characterizes the border zone as they navigate their presence within it, an experience that, to be clear, in no way mitigates the precarity of their lives in that space� In 2018, the Münchner Kammerspiele premiered the play “What They Want to Hear,” about the experiences of a Syrian man, Raaeed Al-Kours, with the asylum process in Germany� The Argentinian director Lola Arias, known for her work creating documentary theater, developed the piece in conjunction with Raaed, who plays himself in the work, and the Open Border Ensemble, a group of artists in exile collaborating with the Kammerspiele (“Open Border Ensemble”)� 8 The piece tells Raaed’s story by drawing on his own description of and documents from his bureaucratic journey� Raaed, a trained archaeologist, fled Syria in 2014� He entered the EU in Bulgaria, via Turkey, where he was granted subsidiary Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 355 refugee status (Ricklefs)� The conditions for refugees in Bulgaria were inhumane, so Raaed continued his flight to Germany, where he has been working on his asylum request for four years, or, as he put it on the day that I saw the piece in mid-July 2018, 1,620 days� Raaed, who fled violence in his home, meets the definition of a refugee as laid out in the UN’s 1951 convention: “A refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom” (“The 1951 Refugee Convention”)� And yet he exists in limbo, waiting to find out whether he will receive asylum in Germany or be deported to Bulgaria, where he first entered the EU� The play’s title, “What They Want to Hear,” refers to the exigencies specific to asylum narratives, which, as Woolley and Jeffers emphasize, require the migrant to tell the “right” or convincing story that can persuade the “Entscheider” to judge in favor of granting asylum - not the story that might reflect an asylum-seeker’s more authentic self� The play’s three scenes focus on different interviews that Raaed must undergo, two with representatives of the BAMF, one with an immigration lawyer, and one with the Ausländerbehörde that regulates his stay in the region of Bavaria which issued his temporary residency permit� The purpose of the interviews is to situate Raaed in connection with various legal spheres governing asylum seekers in Germany: EU law, specifically, his status vis-à-vis the Dublin Regulation (Arias 12); German law governing the level of protection he may be granted in the country (38); and Bavarian law relevant to his residency status in the state (50—52)� Raaed’s various interviews that often leave him confused and frustrated are interlaced with scenes that represent experiences that he feels are significant to his biography, but that have no relevance in asylum-related interviews� These include the efforts of Raaed’s family to document the torture of a relative by the Syrian army, Raaed’s own work helping refugees who were arriving at the Munich train station in 2015, and his desire to continue the archaeology studies he began in Syria at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich� The representation of a disconnect between the version of Raaed’s biography that EU and German migration policy create and his personal experiences lend credence to reading the work as a Kafkaesque tale of an individual’s unjust entrapment in bureaucracy - an interpretation that follows Woolley’s and Jeffers’s analyses of asylum narratives� Furthermore, it is possible to view the casting and staging of “What They Want to Hear” as depicting a bureaucratic system that is consistently unresponsive to individual concerns: Arias has the same actor play different representatives of an asylum legal system at the same office desk� Yet I posit that the piece, which documents Raaed’s negotiation of and learning about the EU border zone, depicted by the repeating desk and official, also serves as a testament to Raaed’s encounter with and formation by Europe’s core, not 356 Marike Janzen his existence on its margins� The narrative trajectory of Raaed’s consecutive encounters with people representing various elements of the asylum legal system highlights the process as one of gaining knowledge in, and being formed by, the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion� In the first two desk scenes, BAMF agents, with the assistance of an interpreter, interview Raaed about his personal data, the specifics of his flight, and whether the reason he fled Syria warrants granting him protective status� These scenes, drawn in large part from transcripts of Raaed’s interview with the BAMF, showcase the specific language and format of the highly consequential intake and asylum interview, as well as the transcripts made from them for official use� 9 The interview begins as the BAMF agent asks a question in German� The interpreter poses the question to Raaed in Arabic� Raaed responds in Arabic, and his interpreter translates his response into German for the BAMF agents� The official restates the translated response, and then dictates the answer into a recording device� By recreating the regimented and multilingual interview, Arias emphasizes its nature as a singular genre� This is a genre with which Raaed is not familiar, but which he must learn in order to succeed� For example, when the “Entscheider” asks whether there are any other countries that are part of the Dublin Regulation that might be responsible for regulating his asylum, but where he does not want to go, Raaed does not understand� The interpreter works to clarify the confusion� He asks, “Did you give your fingerprints in any other state of the Dublin States? ” (10)� Raaed responds, “I don’t know what Dublin is, what does it mean? ” (10)� At the end of his first interview, Raaed realizes that the process is not a singular one, but is simultaneously repeated for individuals and across various sites in the EU� Raaed remembers that he had undergone a similar procedure in Bulgaria: “I had a deja vu� I have been through this before� In Bulgaria the interview was very short” (12)� In anticipation of his second interview with the BAMF to determine asylum status, Raaed recalls realizing that “[he] had to tell the whole story again” (20)� While there are opportunities available for asylum seekers to prepare for the interview process, Raaed did not know about them� In a scene that reinforces the interview as a specific mode of communication, a German volunteer explains to asylum seekers how to rehearse the kinds of questions they will face, as well as helping them rehearse how to answer them: “There is a different way of telling stories, for example the Arabic way, you are always going here and there, back and forth� And then in Germany […] you have to tell everything after each other, in order” (15)� Watching the exchange from another part of the stage, Raaed comments, “I wish someone like her would have helped me” (16)� Raaed’s observation of the volunteer who calls attention to the different storytelling conventions that interviewers and interviewees bring to Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 357 the asylum interview highlights how the expertise necessary to maneuver in the border zone is not relegated to navigating a foreign bureaucracy or language, but also requires managing unspoken, culturally specific, expectations� Fifteen months after his second interview, Raaed learns that his request for asylum has been denied� He will be sent to Bulgaria, where he first entered Europe� His recourse is to take advantage of the expertise of his peers, fellow asylum seekers, and consult with them about how to handle his situation� While the first scene emphasizes Raaed’s experience learning about the border zone interview on his own, in isolation, the second scene demonstrates how Raaed accesses a corpus of experiences about deportation from asylum seekers who describe what it is like - “they come in your apartment and tell you to pack your stuff” (39) - and offer various suggestions on how to prevent it� Hassan tells him to find a lawyer (41), Kamel suggests he not do anything and wait out the bureaucracy, Kinan advises him to “find a German woman and have a child” (42), and Jamal thinks he should seek “Kirchenasyl,” asylum in a church community (43)� Raaed decides to follow the advice to seek help from an immigration lawyer� The play’s second desk scene depicts his meeting with her� Here there is no translator: the lawyer and Raaed speak to each other in English� While Raeed is able to speak about the harm he experienced in Syria and Bulgaria during his intake and asylum interviews, those conversations follow a strict format and hone in on the specifics of Raaed’s religious and legal affiliations and identities� By contrast, his interview with the asylum lawyer concerns the specific ways in which he was mistreated in Bulgaria, information that the lawyer will use to make the case that Raaed cannot be deported there� The lawyer explains that she will use this information to “make [the] appeal and send it to the administrative court� […] If the appeal gets accepted there are two options� The BAMF will either just reopen it or wait for the decision in the European court� So we have to wait” (45)� It is in his conversation with the asylum lawyer, and not the asylum interview with the BAMF representative, that Raaed is encouraged to speak about the shortcomings of claiming asylum in the EU� As Raaed waits for his appeal for deportation to be processed, he moves from Munich to the small town of Wiesheim, presumably as a result of Bavaria’s regulations for dealing with asylum seekers in the state which mandates that they be distributed to various municipalities (“Asylverfahren”)� Yet once he has been admitted to the university in Munich he would like to live there, instead� The third desk scene, set in the town’s Ausländerbehörde, depicts Raaed’s request to change his residence registration from Wiesheim to Munich� The agency employee tells him “when you move to Munich you lose your support here� You are registered as a refugee here, you have to stay here …-as long as your procedure is going on you have to stay in Wiesheim” (Arias 50)� When Raaed asks, in frustra- 358 Marike Janzen tion, “Why? ,” the agent responds, “Well, you … I don’t know” (50)� Here, Raaed learns the conditions of his residence in Bavaria, and we see that the employee of the Ausländerbehörde is pushed to confront her lack of knowledge about the rationale for the asylum laws� It is possible to view “What They Want to Hear” as a play that shows Raaed butting up against but unable to cross multiple borders in Europe, a process represented in the piece by the multiple bureaucrats at their desks who deny his asylum application or his desire to change residence� Yet I submit that the way Arias tells Raaed’s story also allows us to make sense of the desks as zones of negotiation between inclusion and exclusion from Europe that form the subjects who inhabit it� In no way do I mean to suggest that the knowledge that comes from this space compensates for Raaed’s existential limbo, characterized by the bureaucratic misrecognition of his trauma in Syria and Bulgaria and his inability to follow his profession� His existence within those spaces where the EU determines its “inside” and outside,” however, obliges us not to see him solely as an outsider to Europe� Instead, this position reveals Raaed as someone who has gained firsthand knowledge, and thus a kind of expertise, about the very regulations that mandate who is allowed to be included as one of Europe’s legitimate residents, policies that many of Germany’s citizens, EU residents, may not know about� Die Unsichtbaren and “What They Want to Hear” are set within Germany’s national borders� At the same time, they are set in the outposts of a European-wide legal regime - expressed through Germany’s enforcement of the Dublin Regulation as well as compliance with C�E�A�S� policies - seeking to manage the arrival of Europe’s “Others” in the EU� Both works highlight the experiences of refugees who, by virtue of this experience, become experts in the space where this acceptance is negotiated� And both pieces confront the audience with subjects formed by the border zone who either cannot be, or are waiting to be, integrated into the European space� These are the bodies that take on themselves the contradictions that, according to Balibar, define the European project: prioritizing refuge and yet keeping out “the Other�” For this reason, these works cannot be characterized as documents of a uniquely German condition, or as tales of bureaucratic alienation, but must be seen as narratives about a contradictory emergent European subject� In a chapter titled “The Promise of Documentary,” theater scholar Janelle Reinelt claims that “the value of the document is predicated on a realist epistemology, but the experience of documentary is dependent on phenomenological engagement” (7)� That is, documentary works are valuable for demonstrating “what is really happening,” but they cannot be thought of as distinct from the Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 359 experience of those who engage with these stories� This element of the documentary work underscores the significance of Raaed’s decision to “[perform] for you while I’m waiting” (Arias 53)� Here, Raaed shows to an audience in Germany the knowledge of the border zones that primarily belongs to those assumed to be on the “outside” of Europe� Bringing his experiences and documents of asylum-seeking into the public sphere can spur the kind of collective reflection necessary to understand that the purported “Others” waiting for judgment on their presence within Europe may be more “European” than many who can take this presence for granted� Making sense of what constitutes Europe in an era in which its boundaries are being fiercely policed requires much more curiosity and attention to the experiences of those who face the concrete implementation of border policy head-on� This study has examined what “becoming European” looks like for refugees in certain parts of Germany� More study is needed to understand what characterizes this experience across the EU� Notes 1 The current Dublin Regulation, known as Dublin III, replaces the first Dublin Convention (signed in 1990), and the Dublin II Regulation (signed in 2003)� See “Country Responsible for asylum application (Dublin)” and “The Dublin regulation - explained�” 2 The asylum seekers featured in Die Unsichtbaren speak English, French, German, and Arabic, among other languages� Citations are taken from the film’s English subtitles� 3 After passage of the “Zuwanderungsgesetz” (“immigration law”) in 2005, the German government mandated a “Nationaler Integrationsplan” (“national integration plan”) in 2006� See “Zuwanderungsgesetz” and Sharifi 373� 4 One review of Die Unsichtbaren explains that the film “reveals the bureaucratic mechanisms that stand in contrast to the hopes of people around the world trying to make a better life” (see “The Invisibles/ Die Unsichtbaren”)� A review in the New York Times of “What They Want to Hear” claims that Mr� Al Kour’s saga plays out like a contemporary version of a tale by Kafka (see Goldmann)� A German review of the play is titled “In den Mühlen der Bürokratie” (“In the Wheels of Bureaucracy”) (see Ricklefs)� 5 In 1999, Balibar saw European’s responses to the war in the former Yugoslavia as growing out of the desire to contain that which was considered properly European (a commitment to human rights, not genocide) within a European territory� Balibar’s argument then was that Europe is not only negotiated at its external limits, but inside of it� In his 2016 essay “Europe 360 Marike Janzen at the Limits,” Balibar looks to more recent crises in places considered to represent Europe’s “Other” - Ukraine, Damascus, and Lampedusa - and notes how the conflicts in those settings can also be read, in part, as a negotiation about European identity� While Balibar does not explicitly link these negotiations to an inner-European context as he does in “At the Borders of Europe,” neither does his most recent argument contradict the position that there are borders within Europe where the definition of European identity is at stake� For Balibar, “Europe” exists in those places where the definition of “Europe” and Europe’s “Other” is contested� 6 See, for example, Jenny Erpenbeck’s Gehen, ging, gegangen (2015) or Abbas Khider’s Ohrfeige (2016) about asylum seekers in Germany� 7 Hungary offers a key example of a nation-state that has defied EU guidelines through actions that include “[keeping] asylum seekers in transit zones for excessively long periods and [failing] to provide access to proper asylum procedures” (Bayer)� The European Parliament has voted to censure Hungary, possibly by taking away their vote in the Parliament (“EU Parliament”)� However, such a sanction requires a unanimous vote of parliament members, and it is likely that some member states, such as Poland, would not vote for censure (Bershidsky)� 8 Lola Arias is an Argentinean “writer, theatre and film director and performer” (“Lola Arias”)� Her documentary theater work, set both in Argentina and Germany and performed across the world, grows out of her collaboration with the subjects of her plays� In these works, as in “What They Want to Hear,” characters reflect on their own experiences� 9 The play’s languages are English, Arabic, and German� When actors are speaking in German, English surtitles are projected onto a screen� Citations from the play are taken from the surtitles unless otherwise noted� Works Cited “Ablauf des Asylverfahrens�” Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, n�d� Web� 21 May 2019� Arias, Lola� “What They Want to Hear�” Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich� 22 June 2018� Performance� “Asylverfahren�” Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat, n�d� Web� 21 May 2019� Baker, Gary L� “The Violence of Precarity and the Appeal of Routine in Jenny Erpenbeck’s Gehen, ging, gegangen�” Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 54�4 (2018): 504—21� Balibar, Étienne� “At the Borders of Europe�” We the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship� Princeton: Princeton UP, 2004� 1—10� Mechanisms of Exclusion and Invisible Incorporation into the EU 361 —� “Europe at the Limits�” Interventions 18�2 (2016): 165—71� Bayer, Lili� “Commission takes Hungary to court over treatment of asylum seekers�” politico.eu� POLITICO, 19 July 2019� Web� 20 July 2019� Bershidsky, Leonid� “How the EU Plans to Punish Hungary and Poland�” bloomberg. com� Bloomberg, 18 Jan� 2019� Web� 6 July 2019� “Country responsible for asylum application (Dublin)�” European Commission, n�d� Web� 21 May 2019� “Entscheiderinnen und Entscheider�” Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, n�d� Web� 22 Sept� 2018� Erpenbeck, Jenny� Gehen, ging, gegangen� Munich: Knaus Verlag, 2015� “EU Parliament votes to punish Hungary over ‘breaches’ of core values�” bbc.com� BBC News, 12� Sept� 2018� Web� 6 July 2019� EUR-Lex� eur-lex.europa.eu� Publications Office of the European Union, n�d� Web� 6 July 2019� Goldmann, A�J� “In Conservative Munich, a Theater Turns Radical and Defends Refugees�” nytimes.com� The New York Times Company, 13 July 2018� Web� 16 Oct� 2018� Gökturk, Deniz, and David Gramling� “Germany in Transit, ten years on�” German Quarterly 90�2 (2017): 217—19� “Identification of Applicants�” European Commission, n�d� Web� 21 May 2019� “The Invisibles/ Die Unsichtbaren�” fmf-slovenija.si� Festival of Migrant Film, n�d� Web� 5 Feb� 2019� Jeffers, Alison� Refugees, Theatre and Crisis: Performing Global Identities� New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012� Khider, Abbas� Ohrfeige� Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2016� Laubenthal, Barbara� “Refugees welcome? 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Web� 21 May 2019� “The 1951 Refugee Convention�” UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency, n�d� Web� 22 Sept� 2018� 362 Marike Janzen Traynor, Ian� “Is the Schengen dream of Europe without borders becoming a thing of the past? ” theguardian.com� The Guardian, 5 Jan� 2016� Web� 21 May 2019� Die Unsichtbaren� Dir� Benjamin Kahlmeyer� Penrose Film and SWR, 2014� Woolley, Agnes� “Narrating the Asylum Story”: Between Literary and Legal Storytelling�” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 19�3 (2016): 376—94� “Zuwanderungsgesetz�” Auswärtiges Amt, n�d� Web� 15 Feb� 2019� Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige1 363 Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 1 Karolina May-Chu University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Abstract: This contribution engages the analytical frameworks of transnational German Studies, European literature, and world literature to provide a close reading of Abbas Khider’s novel Ohrfeige (2016, Engl� A Slap in the Face, 2018) as a simultaneously German, European, and global novel� The essay argues that migration narratives and especially narratives of refuge cannot be contained within one single geographical, national, or linguistic category and therefore require an entangled analytical approach� Written from the simultaneous insider-outsider perspective of an asylum seeker, Ohrfeige offers a powerful critique of Germany and Europe’s bureaucratic and social practices of exclusion� The analysis of the novel focuses on questions of mobility, language, and the body, and it demonstrates how Khider challenges and transgresses various types of borders and creates a complex and often blurred map in which personal and global histories of displacement intertwine� With its insistence on global connectedness, the novel also contributes to the growing “worldliness” of German literature� Keywords: transnational German literature, European literature, world literature, Abbas Khider, narratives of refuge In 2015, close to 900,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany (“Pressemitteilung”)� This large number has challenged German political and social structures and revitalized discussions about how Germans view themselves as members of a national, European, and global community� Debates between those who embrace or reject a German “Willkommenskultur” became especially heated leading up to the German federal elections in 2017, and they continue to have an impact on Germany’s changing political landscape (Taberner, “Rethinking Solidarity” 819—22)� The political and social developments have also intensified 364 Karolina May-Chu an already existing interest in fictional accounts of migration and refuge� 2 And while forced migrations during and as a result of the Second World War have been a topic of literary exploration for some time, contemporary German literature has also turned to forced migrations from beyond Europe’s borders� Many works from the past decade resonate with current events, even as they predate the so-called “refugee crisis” and look back upon earlier periods, especially the 1990s and early 2000s� In these narratives of refuge, i�e�, narratives that focus on flight and the problems of arrival, 3 authors with or without personal refugee experiences engage with the global dimensions of seemingly distant wars and conflicts within a German setting� Their works highlight the urgency of understanding people seeking refuge as part of the fabric of contemporary German society rather than as something that can be externalized or relegated to the past� For example, Das dunkle Schiff (2008) by Sherko Fatah details an Iraqi Kurd’s flight to Europe and finally to Berlin; Maxi Obexer’s Wenn gefährliche Hunde lachen (2011) tells of a Nigerian woman’s painful journey to Europe; Shida Bazyar’s Nachts ist es leise in Teheran (2016) is the story of an Iranian family who fled to Germany in the 1980s; Senthuran Varatharajah’s Vor der Zunahme der Zeichen (2016) unfolds as a Facebook dialogue between two university students who have fled to Germany from the war-torn regions of Sri Lanka and Kosovo� These and similar works counter the abstract and often polemical discussions in the media or in the political arena and highlight the stories of those whose own voices have been “generally talked over or misrepresented” (Taberner, “Rethinking Solidarity” 822)� And while these texts attest to the diversity of the German experience, they also address larger European and global contexts, such as war and conflict or the political and economic conditions of migration� Ohrfeige (2016; Engl� A Slap in the Face, 2018) by Iraqi-German author Abbas Khider is such a simultaneously German, European, and global novel� Set in Germany in 2004, it tells the story of Karim Mensy, a young Iraqi, who ostensibly kidnaps a German bureaucrat after his asylum status has been revoked� Ohrfeige is Khider’s fourth novel, and the first to be published with the major publishing house Hanser� The hardcover version spent an impressive eleven weeks on the Spiegel-Bestsellerliste for fiction, a sales-based top fifty ranking that is compiled weekly for the book trade in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland� By comparison, Jenny Erpenbeck’s much discussed novel of refuge Gehen, ging, gegangen (2017) spent only one week on the same list, and none of the works mentioned above made the ranking (“buchreport”)� Judging by this relative popularity and media attention, Ohrfeige resonated with readers and can be considered part of a broader discussion on the treatment of refugees in Germany and Europe� Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 365 Khider himself participates in this discourse in several ways because his fictional accounts are also informed by personal experiences (Tabassi 128—29)� Born in Baghdad in 1973, Khider fled Iraq in 1996 due to political persecution� For four years, he moved through several countries in the Middle East and Europe without papers until he was arrested in Germany and requested asylum there in 2000� He became a German citizen in 2007� Khider studied German literature and philosophy and is a critically acclaimed writer� Notably, he is a double recipient of the Adalbert von Chamisso Prize, which was awarded between 1985 and 2017 to recognize authors who write in German but for whom it is not their first language� Perhaps because of Khider’s compelling personal story, most reviewers have read Ohrfeige through the biographical lens rather than assessing it on its literary merits (Pokrywka 424)� Yet, scholars have shown that there are many noteworthy access points to the novel (e�g�, Schramm, Tafazoli, von Maltzan)� In this contribution, I focus on the narrative construction of Germany, Europe, and the world from a simultaneous insider-outsider perspective� Ohrfeige weaves multiple geographical, political, and cultural contexts into a complex narrative that destabilizes fixed and spatially limited understandings of belonging� Karim, the main protagonist and first-person narrator, is suspended geographically between Germany, Europe, and the Middle East; psychologically and temporally between the real world, memories, and hallucinations; and physically between a male and a female body� While literature provides some orientation for him, language and the process of narration also become symbols of his dislocation and isolation� Looking closely at how the novel discusses questions of (im)mobility, language, and the body, I propose that narratives of refuge create fluid and global landscapes that are informed by the accelerated movement of people and ideas across the globe� In this constellation, the inherently intersectional figure of “the refugee” demonstrates that belonging is always a matter of contestation� Ohrfeige creates a world map for the reader, but due to the narrator’s multiple temporal and spatial displacements, it is a map with ambiguous borders and blurred boundaries� In surveying the novel’s mental and political landscape, this essay follows two lines of inquiry� First, it explores how the analytical frameworks of transnational German Studies, European literature, and world literature might facilitate a productive engagement with a work such as Ohrfeige� Second, it examines how Khider accomplishes the blurring of boundaries by offering a close reading of Ohrfeige that highlights its simultaneously localized and delocalized perspectives� These perspectives result from the main protagonist’s situation: Physically, he is in Germany (and thus Europe) and tries to interact with its people and institutions� In every other sense, however, he remains an outsider - due to his legal situation, the impermeable bureaucratic structures, and the systemic rac- 366 Karolina May-Chu ism that exclude him from equal participation in society but also due to personal trauma that amplifies his isolation� One of the guiding questions of this special issue is what it means to practice critical European Studies within the framework of a national literature� Arguably, it entails the questioning of categories such as “German” or “European” and the activation of modes of thinking that decenter and critique their essentialist foundations (e�g�, Halle; see also note 7)� Such a practice emphasizes other, ever multiplying and intersecting attachments and affiliations, which are often expressed in contemporary literature� In this contribution, I specifically draw on a transnational approach to German Studies, and I explore the points of contact between current conceptions of German, European, and world literature to inform my analysis of the novel� Such a combined approach fits within the larger context of a literary history as entangled history - a “Literaturgeschichte als Verflechtungsgeschichte,” as proposed by Annette Werberger� Among other things, an entangled literary history considers transnational connections and multidirectional global transfers in human history and applies multiple perspectives in examining their textual representations� Transnational German Studies, European Studies, and world literature offer different viewpoints on literature as a product of mutual influences and connections across borders, but no perspective is ever detached from its location (e�g�, Baumbach 55, Damrosch 27)� Acknowledging the ideological inflections of these particular access points is crucial, but an entangled view also underscores how they can challenge and enhance one another in the interpretation of literary works� Already since the 1980s and especially since the beginning of this century, an increasing number of German Studies scholars have stressed that German society and culture are shaped by globalization processes, which have only accelerated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (e�g�, Biendarra, Taberner German Literature)� The continuing engagement with a global and transnational reality generates important discussions of what is “German” and what constitutes “German” literature� 4 As a result, and as the title of a special topic edition of the journal TRANSIT in 2011 suggests, many scholars have been staging “cosmopolitical and transnational interventions in German Studies” and are exploring how “precincts of the disciplinary rubric ‘German Studies’ can be blurred, diffused and expanded within and beyond the boundaries of Europe” (Mani and Segelcke)� Narratives of refuge map fluid landscapes that necessitate such open and flexible approaches� Khider’s work, for example, is written in the German language and draws on his experiences in Germany, and it is thereby decidedly part of German literature� At the same time, it also reaches far beyond Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 367 the German context and challenges the reader to consider the permeability of boundaries between Germany, Europe, and the world� Transnational approaches to German (literary) studies aim to decenter and complicate the idea of the nation in the interpretation of cultural expressions within the German-speaking world� By contrast, current conceptualizations of European literature and world literature come from a comparative impulse, but, like transnational German Studies, they focus on texts and authors within the context of the circulation of people, ideas, and material objects beyond borders� Yet, what and where these ideational and political borders are is a matter of debate, and Europe today is widely regarded as an ongoing project; a dynamic constellation of variously defined affiliations and multidirectional processes - from the local through the transnational (e�g�, Halle 4—5, Wetenkamp 7—20)� European literature is part of this process, and in the introduction to his History of European Literature, Walter Cohen emphasizes this connection to the global, arguing that “European literature emerges from world literature and, in our own time, returns to it” (1)� Similarly, Karol Sauerland notes that in the twentieth century the notion of a more recent (“neuere”) European literature was displaced by the idea of world literature (173)� However, European literature does not simply disappear into world literature� Understood as literature set in Europe or addressing European themes and principles, European literature also plays a role in Europeanization and the imagination of a shared European culture� Sibylle Baumbach highlights the deep connections between world literature and European literature (57—58), but she also defines a “new cosmopolitan European literature” as a distinct yet open and flexible literary formation that can aid in “the promotion of a new European identity” (57)� This kind of critical cosmopolitanism is also present in what Lena Wetenkamp identifies as “Poetik des Europäischen,” a thematic and formal orientation that addresses for example fluid geographies and identities, borders and exclusions, or memory and history, and through which literature participates in the discursive construction of Europe (339—44)� Importantly, such a European literature offers a “(Gegen-)Diskurs,” i�e�, a critical counter-perspective on political developments in Europe (9)� As the definition of a European identity depends as much on self-critical input from the inside as it does on external perspectives (e�g�, Wetenkamp 16, Baumbach 59—60), migration literature in general, and narratives of refuge in particular, should be considered crucial to (re)defining European literature and to the discussions of what “Europe” means in the first place� Works like Ohrfeige draw attention to the shortcomings of a political and cultural notion of Europe that promotes inclusivity but actually enforces exclusions� The figure of the refugee, who is simultaneously inside and 368 Karolina May-Chu outside, exposes the limits of European cosmopolitanism and the inaccessibility of “Fortress Europe�” Current conceptualizations of European literature and world literature share a concern for how works from various languages and (national) contexts circulate and communicate with each other� While European literature logically retains its focus on Europe, world literature today is more global in scope, and it represents a wide array of definitions, theories, and approaches� 5 Most relevant in the context of this contribution are notions of world literature that center on questions of production, circulation, and reception� David Damrosch has famously defined world literature as a “mode of circulation and of reading” (5) that places a work “beyond its linguistic and cultural point of origin” (6)� This mode applies to how Ohrfeige itself travels globally through translations, 6 but as my reading will show, the transcendence of people and texts beyond single localities and languages is also a practice within the text� Furthermore, my reading applies and complicates points made by comparative literature scholar Corina Stan, who suggests that world literature today is shaped by global catastrophes and is therefore “a crisis mode of cultural production” (285)� Focusing on questions of mobility, language, and the body, I propose that the narrator’s permanent state of crisis produces the simultaneously localized and delocalized perspective that shapes the storyworld and the discursive construction of Germany and Europe� Khider’s Ohrfeige begins in 2004, sometime after Karim Mensy’s asylum status has been revoked� Karim’s situation corresponds to the reality of many Iraqi asylum seekers in Germany at the time� After Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled in spring 2003, the German government no longer considered Iraq a place of extreme danger and withdrew previously granted asylum requests� By the end of 2006 this policy affected about 18,000 Iraqis, even though Iraq continued to be unsafe, according to organizations such as the UNHCR (Schnellbach)� In the novel, Karim refutes the safety claims of the German government, noting sarcastically: “Die deutschen Behörden können mich genauso gut hier vor Ort erschießen, dann muss ich wenigstens nicht warten, bis ich beim Einkaufen von einer Bombe zerfetzt werde” (Ohrfeige 32)� Karim thus plans to leave Germany before the authorities can deport him and enlists the services of a human trafficker� The novel presumably begins with Karim’s last visit to Niederhofen near Munich, where he intends to say good-bye to Frau Schulz, his case manager at the “Ausländerbehörde,” the foreigners’ registration office� In the first pages, the reader is led to believe that Karim kidnaps Frau Schulz, ties her to a chair, tapes her mouth shut, slaps her in the face (the ostensible Ohrfeige), and forces her to listen� This confrontation functions as a catalyst for Karim to tell the story Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 369 of his life in Iraq and his flight to Europe� His monologue is interspersed with four italicized sequences in which he is inside an apartment, smoking, watching TV, and remembering things� While the reader may conclude early on that the kidnapping is a figment of Karim’s imagination, only the last italicized sequence confirms that he was experiencing drug-induced hallucinations and has in fact been inside the apartment the entire time, waiting to leave Germany� Corina Stan discusses two of Khider’s earlier novels within the frameworks of transnational German Studies and world literature� Two of her observations are especially relevant for my analysis, albeit they play out very differently in Ohrfeige� First, Stan argues that Khider’s novels are evidence of world literature’s “crisis mode” (285) because they demonstrate the “failure of the cosmopolitan ideal” (288)� This failure is due to cataclysmic events, which appear to foreclose any possibility for fundamental change� Second, despite this failure, the characters in Khider’s novels are still able to act on their moral principles by “amending” the world positively in subtle ways, such as deliberate acts of mistranslation (297)� By upholding the cosmopolitan ethic in a different form, they embody an “ideal figure of humanity to come” (299)� Most importantly here, this figure is “both present and detached from a place, but not indifferent,” which Stan reads as a form of distancing that can create a better bond with the world (299)� Stan’s argument is focused primarily on the (intended) effect of such stories on the reader, and she defines world literature as a mode of writing and of “worlding,” i�e�, of “shaping the reader’s world” (296) by expanding their horizon� Here she draws on Pheng Cheah for whom worlding is a cosmopolitan gesture that raises awareness of human interconnectedness (Stan 296—97)� My analysis shifts the main focus to the storyworld itself, and I ask how the narrator’s sense of crisis permeates his imaginative construction of Germany and Europe� I propose that any worlding potential is conspicuously absent within Ohrfeige because to Karim, the world is not amendable� Khider expresses this bleak outlook for example by establishing a tension between locality and delocalized modes of existence, which highlight not Karim’s bonding but a fundamental break with the physical spaces he occupies� Put differently, even though the novel has a very precise geography, these places have no meaning for Karim, who is hiding in his apartment, engaged in a monologue, and unable to stay or leave� A closer look at the novel will elucidate these points� Karim, the first-person narrator and main protagonist, offers a double vision of Germany and Europe that is enabled by his simultaneous insider and outsider perspectives� This contradictory position derives from the precarious situation in which refugees and asylum seekers find themselves legally, socially, and psychologically when they enter Europe� On the one hand, Europe and Germany 370 Karolina May-Chu are desired places that exist on a map and can be reached physically, even if the journey is risky and often deadly� Karim has made it to Germany, to the inside, and he gradually works his way through German bureaucratic institutions, meets German people, and moves through very specific and real geographic locations that provide orientation for the reader (Schramm 71)� On the other hand, these places gradually lose their specificity for Karim as he experiences them as inaccessible and transitory; they are hostile spaces, i�e�, spaces of policing, exclusion, and loneliness� In addition, Karim’s arrival in Germany is purely circumstantial as he was actually on his way to France when he was arrested in late 2000� He declared to the authorities that Germany was the first EU country he entered, which then became the default place of his asylum claim (a reference to the 1997 Dublin I Regulation)� This loss of specificity is also evident in the fact that Karim tends to use “Germany” and “Europe” interchangeably, and he does not distinguish between Europe and the European Union� For example, as he steps outside his barracks in Bayreuth, he notes the “boshafte europäische Eiseskälte” (Ohrfeige 62)� Europe and Germany are synonyms that describe a place that is not Iraq, a place that is supposed to be safe and a new home� As his hope vanishes and is replaced by feelings of speechlessness and exclusion, these locations are stripped of their meaning and are unsuitable for attachment - they are mean and cold, much like the European air may seem to new arrivals� A sharp critique of Germany’s (and by extension Europe’s) exclusionary practices is present throughout the novel, and it becomes clear that, to rephrase Stan, Europe’s cosmopolitan ideal has failed Karim and others like him� Karim’s map is not only amorphous, it is also blurred, as the following exchange with a German official who is directing him to his new housing illustrates: “Mein nächstes Ziel klang wie die libanesische Hauptstadt� ‘To Beirut? ’ fragte ich den schweigsamen Beamten, der mich bis zur Bushaltestelle begleitete� ‘Yes, Bayreuth� Das ist nicht weit’” (57)� Beirut and Bayreuth are homophones to Karim, and they also represent two different times and corresponding geographies in his life� Bayreuth itself embodies the Germanness from which Karim is excluded� With its annual and world-renowned Wagner festival that was appropriated by the Nazis, it continues to exemplify German high culture today; it is also a quaint, quintessentially Bavarian town� In the Beirut-Bayreuth confusion a map that is familiar to Karim merges with the new surroundings to produce a global, yet highly personal mental map in which locations are mobile and borders are fluid� This map includes people and events, it is both spatial and temporal, and it overlays, and in many ways overshadows, German and European mappings� Inscribed on this map are memories of his childhood and youth in Iraq� It includes the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 371 - a global event that occurs shortly after Karim’s asylum request is approved and after which he is seen as a potential terrorist and is unable to find a job (162, 164—71)� When the Iraq War ends in 2003, Karim’s asylum status is revoked� The map also contains a worldwide network of human traffickers, as well as those who circulate money or communication across the globe and arrange for illegal employment or marriages� Ohrfeige thus features multiple entanglements of European and extra-European histories, as German Studies scholar Hamid Tafazoli also notes (238)� World literature also figures into this complex geography, for example when Karim explains power dynamics in terms of Greek mythology (Ohrfeige 11), when he recalls the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales, Alice in Wonderland, or Homer’s Odyssey from his childhood, or when he finds consolation in an Arabic comic series (89)� It is also connected to places in Germany, such as the so-called Goethe Mosque (21) and a cultural center that reminds him of the Scheherazade cinema in Bagdad (21)� Even though the memory of these texts provides Karim with some orientation in the world, it cannot mitigate the fact that Germany and Europe are neither welcoming nor safe for him� In fact, Karim’s experiences with the asylum proceedings and daily racism show that even those who arrive in Europe physically frequently find themselves in situations that attest to its essential inaccessibility� Maria Stehle and Beverly Weber call such hostile sites “spaces of non-arrival�” In reference to films that focus on the journey of refugees, these places generate “stories of non-arrival” that “depict containment and incarceration on the way toward Europe as well as stasis, immobility, and the threat of deportation within Europe” (77, emphasis in original)� Such spaces include “make-shift hotels, container homes, camps, offices, and lines,” but Stehle and Weber also emphasize that “Europe itself is a space of non-arrival for people who receive only temporary residency or who are perpetually excluded from entrance or confined to refugee spaces” (77)� Karim experiences this non-arrival when navigating Europe’s legal and political borders and when encountering its social, cultural, linguistic, and racial boundaries� The novel also includes a number of other characters who hope for a better life in Europe but instead find themselves moving through or waiting in transitory spaces that lack safety and security� Their stories intersect with Karim’s, at times creating “intimate connections and encounters that are possible in spite of European border regimes” (Stehle and Weber 77)� While such connections offer moments of agency, solidarity, and humanity, they also “[highlight] the precarious conditions in which refugees live” (76)� 7 Karim finds temporary comfort in these contacts, but in the end, they only emphasize his loneliness� Due to these “precarious intimacies” (Stehle and Weber) as well as the novel’s 372 Karolina May-Chu blurred and amorphous global geography, I also read these spaces of non-arrival as delocalized, i�e�, non-descript spaces of waiting that do not foster permanent attachments� When Karim asks Frau Schulz: “Was bedeutet es für mich, wenn ich weder in der Heimat noch in der Fremde leben darf? ” (Ohrfeige 19), it reveals the essence of Karim’s complete dislocation and non-arrival� There is a striking disconnect between Germany or Europe as places that can be localized on a map and places at which one can actually arrive� Ohrfeige shows how the regulation of mobility and movement shape a refugee’s experience of Germany and Europe as hostile spaces� Karim experiences Munich as a prison, and all its inhabitants as guards (28—29)� He is constantly afraid of being stopped or harassed by the police, and after his asylum status is revoked he fears deportation and barely leaves his apartment� As a permanent outsider, he is rendered immobile and speechless� While Karim does find moments to circumvent the rules and reclaim mobility and speech for himself, e�g�, through the kidnapping or different disguises, this freedom is either imagined or temporary� The novel’s most significant articulation of Karim’s immobility lies in the fact that everything in the narrative present is either a memory of past events or a hallucination� Because the narrative is focalized through Karim and most of his interactions are remembered or imagined, the reader is inside Karim’s head for the entire novel - much like Karim is inside an apartment and traveling to different times and places only in his mind� In his hallucinated conversation with Frau Schulz, Karim recalls an actual attempt to pay her a visit, but due to the strong police presence at the Munich train station, he was afraid to get to the platform� However, even if he had managed to get on board, he would have likely been detected by the police who frequently control these trains: “[…] und jedes verdammte Mal, wenn sie einen solchen Zug kontrollieren, fragen sie keinen der schönen blonden Fahrgäste nach ihrem Personalausweis� Geradewegs kommen sie immer zu mir - respektive zu den schwarzhaarigen oder auf andere Weise fremdländisch aussehenden Reisenden” (18)� Karim believes that he could only be safe if he could afford a ride in first class and the proper clothing for disguise (18)� The clothing reference returns later in the novel in a memory of his father, who had told his son that being well dressed would keep him safe from the police (42)� Yet despite wearing the nice clothes his father gave him, Karim is picked up almost immediately after entering Germany (43)� Racial profiling, which is already indicated in the scene above, becomes part of his daily experience, and he criticizes Germans for their unacknowledged racism and Islamophobia (e�g�, 19, 168—69)� In Ohrfeige, Khider does not go into detail describing Karim’s skin tone, as he has done in previous works (Stan 289—90, 294)� Nonetheless, racial discrimination runs as a subtext throughout the novel� Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 373 Wherever Karim goes, people view him with suspicion� Even with the correct papers, he has regular interactions with the German police� Because he feels unwelcome and unsafe in German public spaces, he avoids train stations or pedestrian zones (Ohrfeige 29)� Repeatedly, he describes his unsuccessful attempts to belong: with respectable clothing and newspaper choices, by learning the language or by finding a job� Yet, whether he just goes unnoticed or is actively rejected, he remains an outsider� When the risk of harassment turns into the risk of deportation, Karim is confined to his small apartment and his own mind� As these spaces are separate from any public or shared spaces, they are isolated and indifferent to locality� Karim’s physical immobility and dislocation are deeply entwined with issues of speechlessness or possessing the “wrong” kind of language� In fact, language’s inadequacies, failures, and susceptibility to manipulations are at the core of this novel� An example is when Karim is at the train station for his ultimately unsuccessful attempt to take a train to Niederhofen� While he waits for an opportune moment to get to the platform, he sits in a café and pretends to read� To conceal his identity, he deliberately chooses a “serious newspaper” over the tabloid Bild Zeitung: “Offensichtlich denken sie [die Polizei], dass ein Illegaler aus einem dieser unterentwickelten Länder sicher nicht lesen kann� Mit der Süddeutschen Zeitung in der Hand trägt man als Illegaler in Bayern gewissermaßen Tarnfarben” (14)� Karim’s observation is a sarcastic comment on the question of literacy and the “outsider’s” presumed intellectual inadequacy� After all, the Bild Zeitung is Germany’s most widely read daily publication, known for its populist tones, simple language, short articles, and image-heavy content� Its popularity, however, must be attributed to German readers rather than “illiterate foreigners�” The left-liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung, on the other hand, features longer articles and in-depth reporting and signals a “respectable,” i�e�, bourgeois, German existence� Karim is keenly aware of others’ stereotypes and expectations, and he has developed strategies that help him blend in� However, in the end, the newspaper only enables him to remain in the café undetected; it does not provide enough cover for him to actually board a train� Another example demonstrates how the structural limitation of the foreigner’s right to speak and the mechanisms of exclusion are tied to language� Karim hopes to begin his university studies as soon as possible, but he cannot get financial support for the prerequisite German language course (157—60)� By denying him the language course, the bureaucracy controls Karim’s access to the German language and educational system, restricts his participation in German society, and reinforces his status as an outsider� In light of this silencing, it is significant that the novel begins with Karim reclaiming language and his right to speak, albeit by violent means� This situation represents a complete break- 374 Karolina May-Chu down in communication (Pokrywka 417), but this time, Karim takes control and dictates the conditions of the exchange� Although he reclaims his voice, the conversation remains a hallucination and does not translate into any actual power� Communication is doomed to fail, but it is not only because the kidnapping is just imagined� Even within the fantasy, the interaction is one-sided� With her mouth taped shut and Karim speaking Arabic, Frau Schulz can neither understand nor respond (Pokrywa 417)� Karim himself has no reason to believe that a true dialogue could ever be possible, and in grammatically imperfect German he complains to Frau Schulz that she never had any interest in talking� Because German is difficult for him, yet he has a lot to say, he then switches to Arabic, which in the novel is rendered in perfect German: “Es ist natürlich Quatsch jetzt mit ihr Arabisch zu sprechen, aber was soll’s” (Ohrfeige 10)� Corina Stan regards such switches in Khider’s novels as acts of translation and pivotal moments for reading his work as world literature (Stan 296—97): His novels can expand the reader’s horizon, because they are, using Rebecca Walkowitz’s term, “born translated” (295)� Stan describes how Khider’s “characters presumably speak Arabic, but the novels are written in German; the translation comes first, in an unacknowledged reversal of the original and the copy” (295)� Through such translations, Western readers learn about other lives and world historical events (295), in this case Karim’s life story and its entanglement with global politics� 8 However, within this novel, the switch epitomizes Karim’s isolation in Germany and a mental return to another time in his life (one that is often no less hostile)� 9 Karim has given up hope that he can “world” anyone, i�e�, instill a sense of cosmopolitan connectedness in those deciding his fate, and he resorts to violence� The fact that the violence is just as feigned as the language switch only highlights that Karim has no control over his own life and must compensate with his imagination� Karim’s complete isolation in the novel echoes the public-political discourse in which the refugee is an outsider (Tafazoli 222—23; see also note 8)� Because no one will listen to Karim, he inverts the situation by preventing Frau Schulz both from speaking and understanding� Karim may thus be “reclaiming agency in the process of translation” by providing the reader insights into his life (Stan 295—96), but within the novel he is unable to reverse the powerless position of an asylum seeker� As Carlotta von Maltzan also notes, this failure is not a purely linguistic one either but a clashing of vastly different life experiences (99—100)� Karim notes: “Auch wenn Arabisch ihre Muttersprache wäre, würde sie mich nicht verstehen� Sie stammt aus einer ganz anderen Welt als ich� Ein Erdling spricht gerade mit einem Marsianer� Oder umgekehrt” (Ohrfeige 10)� In this scenario communication can never succeed because there is not even a Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 375 shared human connection to build upon� The position of alien and human may be interchangeable, but the two species are incomprehensible to one another� In addition to the impeded mobility and struggles against speechlessness, Karim’s alienation and trauma are amplified by concerns over the integrity of his body� Karim’s racially marked “refugee body” already makes him an outsider to European society, as his difficulties in public spaces demonstrate� In addition, he also experiences a mismatch of body and gender identity� After only indicating that something about his body is a source of shame and the reason for leaving Iraq (44), Karim reveals that he developed breasts during puberty� He recalls the feeling of estrangement as his body begins to change and his fears of transforming into a “Monster” (78)� After Karim kept it a secret for many years, a German doctor diagnoses the condition as gynecomastia, an enlargement of the mammary glands that is the result of a relatively common hormone imbalance (92) and is treatable as an endocrinological disorder� Karim’s condition has psychological roots and was likely caused by a traumatic event when Karim was twelve years old� His friend Hayat, a mute girl who was about two years older, was abducted by three men, raped, and murdered (83)� Karim continues to be haunted by nightmares, and he believes that Hayat’s body has merged with his� He tries to disguise his breasts through clothing or by acting especially masculine, but his body remains a source of shame and a constant reminder of his friend's death (87)� More than a mere discomfort with his own body, his condition is a safety concern� In Iraq, Karim fears that he could be sexually assaulted, especially during his compulsory military service (90)� While this fear is his true reason for leaving Iraq, he is also worried that the German courts would not recognize it as a valid reason for asylum� He therefore adopts the story of a former classmate, who had told a joke about the Iraqi president and his wife in school� This lie enables Karim to claim political asylum (107—09), but it also blurs his identity even further� In sum, much like his location in the world, Karim’s body is ambiguous and a source of insecurity� It is a site of racist exclusion, shame and trauma, and it is deeply entangled with global politics and histories of exclusion, subjugation, and violence� This body is always in a particular location at any given time, but it is also always on the verge of being erased or extinguished� Karim’s immobility and dislocation, the limitations of his ability to speak, and the insecurity he feels about his body are all evidence of the multiple crises he has experienced and continues to endure� Fearing for his life, he perceives (and narrates) the world in a “crisis mode,” as Stan describes� Despite his multiple displacements, the narrator is not indifferent to the world (Stan 299), but he does reject any ethical responsibility of amending it� Karim, it seems, does not want to serve as a token refugee, nor should he have to� As Stuart Taberner 376 Karolina May-Chu aptly notes, “[…] it should not be necessary for the refugee to ‘have a story,’ be ‘likeable,’ or be someone we can ‘identify with’” because framing it in such terms “may ultimately undermine the principle that asylum is an absolute right that must not be subject to the vagaries of empathy” (Taberner, “Rethinking Solidarity” 833)� Already the title of the novel may suggest the narrator’s refusal to become a “Sinnstifter” (Clemens) for Europeans� 10 That responsibility, one can argue, lies with his audience: in the storyworld, an imagined bureaucrat who cannot understand; in the real world, the German, European, or international reader� To conclude, notions of European and world literature are based on the premise that the production and circulation of literature is embedded in global processes� Likewise, German literature today, understood as a body of texts and an institutionalized expression of German self-understanding, is multifaceted and diverse� Narratives of refuge offer powerful critiques of the contradictions and exclusions created by various types of borders� In this way, they also challenge us to rethink the idea of “locating” literature and its authors in clearly defined and fixed spaces� In this context, I read Ohrfeige as an insistence on global connectedness and a critique of Germany and Europe as hostile spaces that prohibit arrival of those deemed unworthy� I have argued that Khider uses (im)mobility, language, and the body as sites for negotiating belonging and exclusion� In so doing, he creates a complex and often blurred global map in which personal and global histories intertwine� Ohrfeige is thereby part of the growing worldliness, or “Weltläufigkeit,” of contemporary German-language literature, to use German-Bulgarian writer Ilija Trojanow’s expression� For Trojanow, German-language literature written by migrant authors is evidence of deeply held cosmopolitan commitments, and it facilitates the merging (“hineinwachsen”) of German-language literature into the world literary space� At the same time, narratives like Ohrfeige also bring the world to German readers (and readers of other languages), adding perspectives that are indispensable for the continuous imagination and reimagination of Germany and Europe� 11 German Studies scholars have been invested in a project of decentering the nation and complicating established narratives for several decades� Dismantling the facile compartmentalization of authors, their texts, and the stories they tell also remains an important task for the future� After all, while authors, narrators or protagonists may be situated within Germany at a given moment, their writing, feeling, thinking, and acting is informed by multiple locations and global contexts that produce entangled attachments and affiliations� Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 377 Notes 1 I would like to thank the editors, Anke Biendarra and Friederike Eigler, for their invaluable comments during the revision process� I am grateful to Nicole Spigner for her critical questions and observations, and to Katherine Anderson, B� Venkat Mani, and Jamele Watkins for their suggestions at different stages of this article� My thanks also go to the Office of Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for their support� 2 See, for example, Hardtke et al� for analyses and theoretical reflections on spaces and figures of refuge in recent German literature� See also Fauth and Parr on the “new realisms” in contemporary German literature and Schramm’s examination of Khider’s use of irony in this context� In her MA thesis, Sabine Zimmermann reads Ohrfeige as a transcultural novel and critique of Germany’s exclusionary practices� She views the novel as a mirror of German society (52) and analyzes the multiple identities that the figure of the refugee embodies� 3 Comparative literature scholar Søren Frank advocates for the term “migration literature” (rather than “migrant literature”), which I am using here as well� According to Frank, the term shifts emphasis to the content and form of literary works rather than authorial biographies� It includes writers of migrant and non-migrant backgrounds alike and acknowledges the pervasiveness of migratory processes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (52)� I use the term “narratives of refuge” here for similar reasons, despite relatively few documented uses of the term� My choice also reflects the German distinction between “Fluchtliteratur” (literature about flight or refuge) and the more essentializing “Flüchtlingsliteratur” (refugee literature)� 4 Many scholars are instrumental in decentering the national framework of German Studies� Collections include, among others, Germany in Transit: Nation and Migration 1955—2005 (Göktürk et al�) from 2007, as well as the 2017 “Forum: Migration Studies” (Arslan et al�) in German Quarterly� An overview of the broader history of the field and its intellectual origins is provided by Mani and Segelcke� For a placement of Khider’s work within this context, see also Stan (287—88)� The study of German literature today is also enriched by the application of the world literature concept, as the volume Reading German Literature as World Literature, edited by Thomas O� Beebee, demonstrates� In his introduction, Beebee gives a concise overview of some of the main positions and approaches in world literature, especially how they relate to the German context (1—22)� 5 World literature examines, for example, how aesthetic forms, ideas, and texts travel within an unequal literary system and how and under what 378 Karolina May-Chu conditions they enter or exit the world literary space� World literary theory thus often applies a postcolonial lens and thereby also criticizes the dominance of the English language and the tendency for literary fields to place Europe and North America at the center of study (e�g�, Beebee, Damrosch)� In challenging these constellations, world literary theory, especially within the context of an entangled literary history, has much to offer to German literary studies, as Werberger also notes (124—27)� 6 The novel was first published in German in 2016, and it has so far been translated into Bosnian (2017), Dutch (2017), Latvian (2017), Hungarian (2018), and English (2018)� 7 Stehle and Weber point out that because “spaces of non-arrival” foster “precarious intimacies,” they also bear some connection to Randall Halle’s concept of the “interzone” (77)� They refer to Halle’s conceptualization of the interzone as an “ideational space, a sense of being somewhere that unites two places, if even only transitionally or temporarily” (Halle 4—5)� More generally, the concept of the interzone also provides an important model for a critical European Studies as it decenters the nation state and instead highlights entanglements and exchanges� It is based on a notion of Europe as a “space of becoming” (4) that is neither unified nor homogeneous but rather a “moment of productive transit in the interzone” (5)� 8 Hamid Tafazoli highlights a similar educational moment when he describes the refugee as a border figure (“Grenzfigur”) in two different senses: in the public-political discourse the refugee is an outsider (222—23), but in the literary discourse, they are constructed as an intercultural figure (224)� Literature can create spaces of inclusion, for example in the form of a shared memorial space (“Gedächtnisraum”) in which refugees participate and where their experiences become accessible for European audiences (223—24)� 9 Focusing on production rather than reception, Katherine Anderson has examined Abbas Khider’s language shift into German as the author’s way of distancing and coping with trauma through his writing� In this regard, one could also ask whether Karim’s return to his native Arabic (even if rendered in German by Khider) signals both an imagined return to a lost homeland and a retraumatization because this return is not possible� 10 See also Carlotta von Maltzan, who argues that Karim demands critical reflection from the reader and is not a figure they can identify with� For a critique of Eurocentrism, see Stehle and Weber, who caution against reproducing racialized hierarchies in narratives of migration and refuge (e�g�, 77—78)� 11 These new perspectives also demand work across linguistic boundaries - something I was unable to do in this contribution� Certainly, my analysis Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 379 would have benefitted from knowledge of Arabic� Here I want to point to Lobna Fouad, who demonstrates how Arabic culture and the Arabic language (e�g�, in the form of translated proverbs or idiomatic expressions) are present in Khider’s novels� Works Cited Anderson, Katherine� “Von der Wanderung zum Wandel: Die Migration des Abbas Khider in die deutsche Sprache als Traumabewältigung durch Erzählen�” Turns und kein Ende? Aktuelle Tendenzen in Germanistik und Komparatistik� Ed� Elke Sturm-Trigonakis, Olga Laskaridou, Evi Petropoulou and Katerina Karkassi� Frankfurt a�M�: Peter Lang, 2017� 95—104� Arslan, Gizem, Brooke Kreitinger, Deniz Göktürk et al� “Forum: Migration Studies�” The German Quarterly 90�2 (2017): 212—34� Baumbach, Sibylle� “Rooting ‘New European Literature’: A Reconsideration of the European Myth of the Postnational and Cynical Cosmopolitanism�” Cosmopolitanism and the Postnational: Literature and the New Europe� Ed� César Domínguez and Theo D’haen� Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2015� 55—74� Beebee, Thomas O�, ed� German Literature as World Literature� New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014� Biendarra, Anke S� Germans Going Global: Contemporary Literature and Cultural Globalization� Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2012� “buchreport Abbas Khider, Ohrfeige�” buchreport.de, Buchreport, n�d� Web� 13 Feb� 2020� Clemens, Manuel� “Nach dem Künstler� Flüchtlinge und Migranten als neue Sinnstifter�” Niemandsbuchten und Schutzbefohlene: Flucht-Räume und Flüchtlingsfiguren in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur� Ed� Thomas Hardtke, Johannes Kleine and Charlton Payne� Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2017� 259—67� Cohen, Walter� “Introduction�” A History of European Literature: The West and the World from Antiquity to the Present� Oxford and New York: Oxford UP, 2017� 1—13� Damrosch, David� What is World Literature? Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2003� Fauth, Søren R�, and Rolf Parr, eds� Neue Realismen in der Gegenwartsliteratur� Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2016� Fouad, Lobna� “Verflechtung und Entflechtung von deutscher und arabischer bzw� irakischer Identität in der Grenzgängerliteratur des Chamisso-Förderpreisträgers von 2010 Abbas Khider�” Sprachen und Kulturen im Kontakt� Ed� Iwona Bartoszewicz, Anna Małgorzewicz, Patricia Hartwich et al� Wrocław: ATUT, 2016� 63—86� Frank, Søren� “Four Theses on Migration and Literature�” Migration and Literature in Contemporary Europe� Ed� Mirjam Gebauer and Pia Schwarz Lausten� Munich: Martin Meidenbauer, 2010� 39—57� Göktürk, Deniz, David Gramling, and Anton Kaes, eds� Germany in Transit: Nation and Migration, 1955—2005� Berkeley: U of California P, 2007� 380 Karolina May-Chu Halle, Randall� The Europeanization of Cinema: Interzones and Imaginative Communities� Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2014� Hardtke, Thomas, et al�, eds� Niemandsbuchten und Schutzbefohlene: Flucht-Räume und Flüchtlingsfiguren in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur� Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2017� Khider, Abbas� Ohrfeige� Munich: btb Verlag, 2017� Maltzan, Carlotta von� “‘Als wären wir Verbrecher’� Zu prekären Leben und dem Umgang mit Geflüchteten in Abbas Khiders Ohrfeige und Julya Rabinowichs Dazwischen: Ich�” Acta Germanica: German Studies in Africa 47�1 (2019): 92—105� Mani, B� Venkat, and Elke Segelcke� “Cosmopolitical and Transnational Interventions in German Studies�” Cosmopolitical and Transnational Interventions in German Studies� Ed� B� Venkat Mani and Elke Segelcke� TRANSIT 7�1 (2011): n� pag� Pokrywka, Rafał� “Drei Metaphern des Exils im neuesten deutschsprachigen Roman: Gehen, ging, gegangen von Jenny Erpenbeck, Ohrfeige von Abbas Khider, Das Mädchen mit dem Fingerhut von Michael Köhlmeier�” Tematy i Konteksty 12�7 (2017): 412—25� “Pressemitteilung: 890�000 Asylsuchende im Jahr 2015�” Bundesministerium des Innern für Bau und Heimat, 30 June 2016� Web� 8 July 2019� Sauerland, Karol� “Europäische Literatur als Begriff�” Die kulturelle Eigenart Europas� Ed� Günter Buchstab� Munich: Verlag Herder, 2010� 165—77� Schnellbach, Ulrike� “Asyl: Terror im Irak kein Grund zur Flucht�” taz.de� Die Tageszeitung, 28 June 2007� Web� 8 July 2019� Schramm, Moritz� “Ironischer Realismus: Selbstdifferenz und Wirklichkeitsnähe bei Abbas Khider�” Neue Realismen in der Gegenwartsliteratur� Ed� Søren R� Fauth and Rolf Parr� Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2016� 71—84� Stan, Corina� “Novels in the Translation Zone: Abbas Khider, Weltliteratur, and the Ethics of the Passerby�” Comparative Literature Studies 55�2 (2018): 285—302� Stehle, Maria, and Beverly Weber� “Precarious Intimacies: Narratives of Non-Arrival in a Changing Europe�” TRANSIT 11�2 (2018): 75—90� Tabassi, Mohamed� “‘Im Fegefeuer von Diktaturen’� Die Darstellung arabischer Diktaturen im Prosawerk von Abbas Khider�” Zagreber germanistische Beiträge: Jahrbuch für Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft 35 (2014): 127—63� Taberner, Stuart, ed� German Literature in the Age of Globalization� Birmingham: U of Birmingham P, 2004� Taberner, Stuart� “Towards a ‘Pragmatic Cosmopolitanism’: Rethinking Solidarity with Refugees in Olga Grjasnowa’s Gott ist nicht schüchtern�” The Modern Language Review 114�4 (2019): 819—40� Tafazoli, Hamid� “Flüchtlingsfiguren im kulturellen Gedächtnis Europas� Konstruktionen einer Grenzfigur in den Romanen Schlafgänger, Ohrfeige und Gehen, ging, gegangen�” Weimarer Beiträge 64�2 (2018): 222—43� Trojanow, Ilija� “Migration als Heimat�” nzz.ch� Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 29 Nov� 2009� Web� 8 July 2019� Reading Germany, Europe, and the World in Abbas Khider’s Novel Ohrfeige 381 Werberger, Annette� “Überlegungen zu einer Literaturgeschichte als Verflechtungsgeschichte�” Kulturen in Bewegung: Beiträge zur Theorie und Praxis der Transkulturalität� Ed� Dorothee Kimmich and Schamma Schahadat� Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2012� 109—41� Wetenkamp, Lena� Europa erzählt, verortet, erinnert: Europa-Diskurse in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwart� Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017� Zimmermann, Sabine� “Lachen und Weinen mit ungebetenen Gästen: Kulturelle Grenzüberschreitungen in Abbas Khiders Ohrfeige und Firas Alshaters Ich komm auf Deutschland zu�” MA thesis U of British Columbia, 2017� “Ich bin Europa”: Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität in Falk Richters FEAR und Safe Places Daniele Vecchiato Università degli Studi di Padova Abstract: The article analyses the representation of Europe in Falk Richter’s plays FEAR (2015) and Safe Places (2016), which were written in response to two recent EU crises, namely the rise of far-right populism following Angela Merkel’s Willkommenskultur towards Syrian refugees, and the Brexit referendum� Richter stages Europe as a white woman, vulnerable and yet ruthless, full of contradictions, torn apart by the politics of her own member states� It is this fragility and disunity that allows neofascist politicians (whom the author calls the “zombies”) to raise their voice and gain more and more popular consensus� With postdramatic techniques and a disruptive, agitprop style, Richter draws on the tradition of political theatre to promote the idea of a united and inclusive Europe as the only possible antidote to stop far-right populism and guarantee a democratic and pacific future for the continent� Keywords: contemporary drama, migration, populism, European Union, Falk Richter, Robert Menasse In der literaturwissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung mit Europa wird der Kontinent als ein gedankliches Konstrukt aufgefasst, das nicht unbedingt klar umrissene geografische oder politische Konturen aufweist, sondern sich durch eine Pluralität von ideengeschichtlichen, identitären und nicht selten auch utopischen Vorstellungen und (Selbst-)Visionen definieren lässt� 1 Europa ist ein „fast endloses, immer wieder neu einsetzendes Gespräch“ (Schlögel 35) über seine Grenzen und Zugehörigkeiten, über seine historischen Grundlagen und soziokulturellen Voraussetzungen, über die gemeinsamen Werte und Bedürfnisse seiner Völker, über die Art und Weise, mit der interne Krisen und Konflikte 384 Daniele Vecchiato gelöst werden� In diesem Kontext einer fließenden Diskursbildung und einer kontinuierlichen Sinnkonstitution stellt sich die Frage nach der Rolle und den Aufgaben der Literatur und insbesondere des Theaters bei der Definition des Konstrukts Europa: In welchem Maße können künstlerische Ausdrucksformen und kulturelle Praktiken dazu beitragen, Identitätsentwürfe und Denkmodelle zu entwickeln, die über politische und wirtschaftliche Vorstellungen hinausgehen? Lässt sich jenseits der inhaltlichen Entfaltung von Themen und Motiven, die Anknüpfungspunkte zur politischen Aktualität liefern, eine „Poetik des Europäischen“ (Wetenkamp 13) erkennen, für die bestimmte ästhetische Verfahren zur sprachlichen Inszenierung verschiedener Vorstellungen von Europa charakteristisch sind? Durch welche produktions- und rezeptionsästhetischen Mechanismen können insbesondere dramatische Werke mit dokumentarischem Charakter und ausgeprägter Referenzialität eine seismografische Analyse gegenwärtiger Zustände anbieten und dabei neue Perspektivierungen und Erklärungsversuche wagen? Im Zuge der aktuellen Europa-Krise 2 sind in den letzten Jahren zahlreiche Werke im deutschsprachigen Raum erschienen, die Fragen zur politischen Integration der EU, der Konstruktion einer europäischen Identität oder der Rolle Europas in einer zunehmend globalisierten Welt aufwerfen� Während vor allem essayistische und narrative Texte mittlerweile gut erforscht sind (vgl� etwa Büssgen, Wetenkamp, Rebien), steht hingegen die literaturwissenschaftliche Europa-Forschung in Bezug auf die Produktion dramatischer Texte noch am Anfang, 3 obwohl gerade Theaterstücke besonders interessante Fallstudien darstellen: Mit ihren performativen und figurativen Eigenschaften halten Dramen nämlich die Möglichkeit bereit, „Europa als einen Körper zu denken“ und „die ubiquitäre und unabgeschlossene Verfasstheit des Europabegriffs und des mit ihm bezeichneten Territoriums in ein klar umgrenztes und allgemein verständliches Vorstellungsbild zu gießen“ (Tropper 14—15)� Darüber hinaus kann das Theater selbst als eine Metapher für die europäische Gesellschaft gelesen werden, für einen Ort also, an dem jedes Individuum allein und zugleich Teil einer heterogenen Gemeinschaft ist, wie der Schweizer Theaterautor Milo Rau im Hinblick auf seine Europa-Trilogie (2014—2016) beobachtet hat: „[T]heatre becomes a metaphor […] for European society, where you have a strange mélange of generations, stories, historical and political backgrounds� All this is what theatre is: a strange family that has to go through terrible times together“ (Pearson und Rau)� Als besonders repräsentative Beispiele einer intensiven Auseinandersetzung mit Europa im deutschen Gegenwartstheater werden im Folgenden zwei Stücke des 1969 in Hamburg geborenen Autors und Regisseurs Falk Richter untersucht, die sich mit eindrücklicher Anschaulichkeit und Vehemenz der politischen Lage Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 385 auf dem Kontinent widmen: FEAR (UA 2015) und Safe Places (UA 2016)� Dabei werden nicht nur die thematische Aussagekraft der Stücke und deren Bezug auf aktuelle politische Debatten herausgearbeitet, sondern auch die ästhetischen Verfahren analysiert, mit denen Richter seine Idee eines engagierten Theaters umsetzt� Der Fokus richtet sich insbesondere auf den beiden Texten zugrunde liegenden „Europa-Diskurs“ 4 sowie auf Richters Plädoyer für eine nachnationale Europäische Republik, welches der Autor im intertextuellen Dialog mit Robert Menasse entfaltet� In der Überzeugung, dass „ästhetische Dispositive nie abgetrennt von ihrem historischen und sozialpolitischen Kontext zu analysieren sind“, werden Richters Texte aus der Perspektive der Applied Theatre Studies gelesen, das heißt als eminent politische Projekte, die darauf ausgerichtet sind, „mit dem Ziel der Veränderung in das soziale Gefüge einer Gemeinschaft wie in die Handlungsmuster von Individuen, die diese Gemeinschaft ausmachen, mit theatralen Mitteln einzugreifen“ (Warstat et al� 14)� Seit den Anfängen seiner Karriere als Theatermacher versteht Falk Richter das Theater als Ort der gesellschaftlichen Reflexion und zugleich als Aktionsraum für politische Einmischung� In früheren Stücken wie Kult! (UA 1997) und Gott ist ein DJ (UA 1999) wie auch später in Die Verstörung (UA 2005) und TRUST (UA 2007) seziert Richter die medialisierte Gesellschaft und die Entseelung zwischenmenschlicher Beziehungen (vgl� Seidler, Hentschel 193—97, Stegemann, Tigges)� Noch kritischer sind Werke wie PEACE (UA 2000), Electronic City und Unter Eis (beide UA 2004), in denen die Thematisierung der Mediengesellschaft mit einer Kritik der Kriegs-, Arbeits- und Ausbeutungssysteme der Gegenwart verbunden wird (vgl� Béhague 169—73, Kemser, Heimburger 340—52, Lehmann 156—62, Klimant)� Können die genannten Texte noch als work-in-progress-Stücke gelesen werden, mit denen Richter eine eigene Sprache für eine neue Art politischen Theaters suchte, so entfaltet der Dramatiker in den 2010er Jahren einen sehr charakteristischen Stil, den er in seinen neueren Produktionen - von SMALL TOWN BOY (UA 2014) bis hin zu Arbeiten wie VERRÄTER. Die letzten Tage (UA 2017) - konsequent durchhält� Es handelt sich um einen „neodramatischen“ Stil (vgl� Bremer 250), der mithilfe typischer postdramatischer Mittel (wie der Anhäufung heterogener Textfragmente und Materialien) Ansätze von Figuren und Geschichten zeigt, auch wenn die Struktur und die Handlung der Stücke offen, porös und verhandelbar bleibt: Anstatt Geschichten zu konstruieren mit einem Anfang, einem Mittelteil und einem Ende, in denen Figuren eine geradlinige Biografie durchlaufen, kann ich unterschiedliche Intensitäten nebeneinanderstellen […]� Ich kann anfangen, etwas zu erzählen, und dann durch einen plötzlich einbrechenden Moment des DISCONNECT abbrechen, eine andere Richtung einschlagen, Genre, Textform, Erzählform unvorbereitet neu ausrich- 386 Daniele Vecchiato ten, die Diskursebene wechseln, von einer Metaebene auf das Ereignis schauen, von Text zu Tanz übergehen, von Sprechen zu Singen, alles in Geräusch auflösen, plötzlich die Reset-Taste drücken und einen neuen Anfang suchen� (Richter, Disconnected 99—100) Einerseits schreibt dieser für Richters Poetik strukturierende Moment des abrupten Bruchs und Wechsels die Tradition des epischen Theaters Bertolt Brechts und des politischen Theaters Erwin Piscators fort und verfolgt somit dieselbe verfremdende Wirkung, die Zuschauenden „zwischen Beobachtung, Sich-Einlassen, Versinken in Empathie, Distanz wahren, Bewerten, Zwischenbilanz ziehen“ schwanken zu lassen (ebd� 96)� Andererseits will der disconnect jene traumatische Erfahrung des Bruchs und der Verunsicherung widerspiegeln, die laut Richter ein konstitutives Merkmal menschlicher Existenz in unserem Zeitalter darstellt: Das Leben, das wir heute führen, kann uns vor ganz unerwartete BRÜCHE, ÄNDERUN- GEN, CUTS, STÖRUNGEN stellen� […] Eine Firma kann plötzlich zusammenbrechen, […] ein Terrorakt kann eine Stadt, ein ganzes Land in den Ausnahmezustand versetzen […]� Der Euro kann zusammenbrechen, das Vertrauen in den Staat, in einen anderen Menschen kann in Sekundenschnelle wegbrechen, das Schengen-Abkommen kann über Nacht rückgängig gemacht werden […]� Der Bruch, der disconnect, ist also das dramatische Ereignis unserer Zeit� Und damit gehen brüchige Strukturen einher, eine fundamentale Unsicherheit, […] das Gefühl, auf tragische Weise unvorhersehbaren Ereignissen ausgeliefert zu sein� (ebd� 98—99) Solche Erfahrungen müssen sich nach Richter in der Struktur und der Dramaturgie eines Theaterstückes der Gegenwart niederschlagen� Ähnlich wie bei René Pollesch oder Yael Ronen entstehen Richters Texte oft im Gruppenprozess: Der Regisseur oder die Regisseurin sammelt Materialien, die als Ausgangspunkt dienen und während der Proben mit dem Ensemble im Workshop-Modus bearbeitet, diskutiert und um weitere Texte ergänzt werden, so dass am Ende ein bestimmtes Thema aus mehreren Perspektiven beleuchtet wird� Diese kooperative, vom „Fragenrausch des Autorregisseurs“ geleitete Arbeitsweise lässt die Bühne „zum space of emergence und zum Forschungslabor“ (Birgfeld 174) werden, in welchem Momente der Reflexion, des Austauschs und der Improvisation zur Gestaltung eines Textes beitragen, der immer provisorisch erscheint und theoretisch bei jeder Performance adaptiert und revidiert werden kann� Eine solche Poetik und eine solche Dramaturgie sind auch für die Europa-Stücke FEAR und Safe Places charakteristisch, wie im Folgenden gezeigt werden soll� 5 FEAR wurde am 25� Oktober 2015 an der Berliner Schaubühne uraufgeführt und sorgte monatelang für Aufregung in der politischen und kulturellen Landschaft Deutschlands (vgl� Wulff, Laudenbach, von Becker)� Das Stück entstand als Reaktion auf rassistische Gewalt, die in Deutschland im Spätsommer 2015 Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 387 begann, nachdem Angela Merkel in ihrer viel beachteten „Wir schaffen das“-Rede die kurzzeitige Öffnung der Grenzen für Geflüchtete (vor allem Syrer) angekündigt hatte, um zu versuchen, die sogenannte „Flüchtlingskrise“ 6 im Sinne der Willkommenspolitik zu lösen� Explosiv ist das Stück, weil es den Aufschwung rechtsnationaler Bewegungen thematisiert und sowohl nationalistische und xenophobe Bewegungen wie die Alternative für Deutschland und PEGIDA als auch Anti-Gender-Aktionen wie die „Demo für alle“ 7 an den Pranger stellt� Richter setzt sich also insgesamt mit jenen Vertretern der sogenannten „Neuen Rechten“ auseinander, die Identitäten, die sich außerhalb der Kategorie des „weißen heterosexuellen Christen“ positionieren, in Frage stellen� Die Neuen Rechten kennzeichnet er im Stück als „die Untoten“, als „Zombies“ (Abb� 1), die begraben liegen unter den massenvernichtungsanlagen und leichenbergen der schlachtfelder aber sie kriechen alle wieder aus den gräbern der diskursfriedhöfe und stolpern mit blutleeren augen durch die öffentlich rechtlichen fernsehanstalten die internetforen die blogs die kommentarspalten und durch die verwaisten straßen der zusammenbrechenden leblosen landschaften fernab unserer wahrnehmung� (Richter, Ich bin Europa 24) Abb. 1: FEAR von Falk Richter� © Arno Declair, gedruckt mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Schaubühne, Berlin� 388 Daniele Vecchiato Als Beispiele für Zombies, die mit ihren Hasspredigten die öffentliche Debatte vergiften und bei den Wählern immer breitere Zustimmung finden, nennt Richter namentlich Politiker wie Frauke Petry, Hedwig von Beverfoerde, Beatrix von Storch und rechtsradikale Aktivisten wie Akif Pirinçci� Dies hat ihm - neben Protest und Morddrohungen - auch drei gerichtliche Verfahren eingebracht, die jedoch alle zugunsten des Autors und der Schaubühne ausgegangen sind (vgl� Bednarz)� Um die Aufführung des Stückes zu legitimieren und die Kunstfreiheit des Regisseurs und der Beteiligten an der Produktion zu verteidigen, haben die Leiter der Schaubühne Thomas Ostermeier und Friedrich Barner einen Text in Theater heute veröffentlicht, in dem sie erklären, dass die Zombies in Richters Stück als jene Vertreter „menschenverachtende[r] Ideen und Ideologien [zu deuten sind], die wir in Deutschland nach dem Ende der Nazidiktatur durch den erfolgreichen Aufbau einer Demokratie, die europäische Einigung, die Überwindung des Ost-West-Konfliktes und die friedliche Wiedervereinigung ein für alle Mal für überwunden und verschwunden hielten und die jetzt wieder erscheinen“ (Barner und Ostermeier 69)� Die Schlüsselfrage von FEAR wird in einem Monolog explizit formuliert: „wie gehen wir mit jemandem um, der bereits tot ist, wie bekämpfen wir ein denken, das tot ist, und das zwei weltkriege ausgelöst und begleitet hat� […] wie töten wir argumente, die längst schon tot sind? “ (Richter, Ich bin Europa 47—48)� Die Antwort sucht Richter in einem Theater, das mit allen Mitteln um die Aufmerksamkeit des Publikums ringt, um „die Erregungslogik, die unsere Öffentlichkeit heute bestimmt, mit ihren eigenen Waffen zu schlagen“ (Schreiber 8)� Da unsere Sprache - wie Richter in einem anderen Stück schreibt - durch „das rechtsnationale Brainwashing […] derart ausgehöhlt“ wurde, „dass alles, was nicht mehr so voll erregungszustandsmäßig knallt, irgendwie lahm oder impotent klingt“ (Richter, Ich bin Europa 229), rekurriert der Theatermacher auf aggressive Satire, um trotz der generellen Erhöhung der Lautstärke im öffentlichen Diskurs Gehör zu finden� FEAR erweist sich somit als ein gegen die Propaganda der Neuen Rechten gerichtetes Stück in bester Agitprop-Manier� In Einklang mit seiner Ästhetik des disconnect und in der Tradition des politischen Theaters arbeitet Richter mit verschiedenen Materialien und Textsorten: Zusätzlich zu den traditionellen Monologen und Dialogen der Schauspieler integriert er Input-Fragen für Improvisationssequenzen, Suchergebnisse von Netzrecherchen zu den Neuen Rechten oder zu den klinischen Namen diverser Phobien, Songs, Tanzperformances, sowie Plakate und Videoclips mit Bildern von Persönlichkeiten aus der deutschen und internationalen Politikszene� Besondere Aufmerksamkeit erregen die Audiocollagen von Readymade-Zitaten aus Interviews mit „Demo für alle“-Teilnehmern, PEGIDA-Sympathisanten und Demonstranten vor dem Asylbewerberheim in Freital, die Richter in den Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 389 Text integriert� Die so entstehende Polyphonie ermöglicht es, die Stimmen der Rechtsradikalen unmittelbar zu hören und gleichzeitig die Einfältigkeit ihrer Slogans zu entblößen: „Volksverräter“, „Lügenpresse“, „Die kommen hier zum Einbrechen, die kommen hier zum Klauen“, „Die kriegen einen Haufen Geld“, „Ich habe auch nichts gegen Ausländer“, „Ich bin kein Nazi“� Diese Rhetorik auf der Bühne zu reproduzieren ist selbst für die Schauspieler so widerwärtig, dass sie sich in einer kurzen metatheatralischen Szene weigern, weiterzuspielen (57—58)� Und doch wird durch diese Polyphonie erst deutlich, dass sich die im Titel des Stückes angesprochene Angst nicht nur auf die Furcht vor den Rechten bezieht, sondern sie impliziert auch die Summe ihrer eigenen, Tag für Tag in öffentlichen Hassreden zum Ausdruck kommenden Ängste, die im Stück als das Unbehagen angesichts der Komplexität der heutigen Welt gedeutet werden - einer Welt, die nicht mehr in nationalen Grenzen denkt, die pluralistische Konzepte von Zusammenleben und Familie hat und sich nicht in überschaubare Kategorien einordnen lässt� Den Höhepunkt in diesem szenischen Sammelsurium bildet ein Monolog auf Englisch, I am Europe, der - ins Deutsche übersetzt, variiert und erweitert - in drei der vier weiteren Texte von Richter vorkommt, die 2017 in der dramatischen Anthologie Ich bin Europa zusammen mit FEAR erschienen sind� 8 Einerseits kann der Titel I am Europe als eine Anspielung auf das Hashtag Je suis Charlie gelesen werden, das im Frühjahr 2015 nach den Terroranschlägen in Paris schnell weite Verbreitung in den sozialen Medien fand, und impliziert somit eine grundsätzliche Solidarität mit Europa und dessen Werten� Andererseits wirft der Titel die Frage nach einer fassbaren Identität Europas auf: Was ist eigentlich Europa? Oder: Wer ist Europa? In FEAR überlässt Richter die Antwort Europa selbst, die in der Gestalt einer weißen, blonden Frau auftritt� Wenn die Figur Europa einen weiblichen Körper erhält, so folgt diese Darstellung der traditionellen, patriarchalisch geprägten Imagologie des Kontinents als Frau, 9 die mit dem antiken Mythos vom Raub der Europa verbunden ist� Im Mythos ist Europa eine phönizische Prinzessin, die von Zeus nach Kreta entführt wird, wo sie aufgrund der Vergewaltigung durch den Gott drei Kinder gebärt: Konstitutiv für die Gründungsgeschichte des Kontinents ist also - neben der Erfahrung sexueller Gewalt - eine Geschichte der erzwungenen Migration� Europa ist also von Anbeginn durch kulturelle Hybridität gekennzeichnet - ein Element, das aber im kulturellen Gedächtnis durch die traditionelle Personifizierung des Kontinents als weiße Frau überdeckt wird� Im Fall Richters kann die Repräsentation Europas durch einen weißen Körper als kritische Reproduktion einer bestimmten Wunschvorstellung von Europa gedeutet werden, die eine Idee rassischer Überlegenheit vertritt und die die Integration von Menschen anderer Hautfarbe oder Herkunft in ihrem 390 Daniele Vecchiato homogenisierenden Identitätskonstrukt nicht vorsieht� Darüber hinaus trägt Richters Europa-Figur in den Uraufführungen von FEAR und Safe Places keinen klassisch anmutenden Peplos, in Anspielung an die Europa-Allegorien der bildenden Kunst, sondern einen modernen Business-Anzug, der an das Europa der Bürokraten erinnert und eine Idee von Fortschritt, Effizienz und Sauberkeit evoziert (Abb� 2)� Abb. 2: Constanze Becker als Europa und das Ensemble in Falk Richters Safe Places� ©-Birgit Hupfeld, gedruckt mit freundlicher Genehmigung vom Schauspiel Frankfurt� In ihrem Monolog definiert sich Europa zunächst durch eine Liste von Attributen und Zahlen, die auf den ersten Blick neutral erscheinen, tatsächlich aber polemisch aneinandergereiht sind, um den Fokus auf die wenig beachteten bzw� nicht anerkannten ethnischen und linguistischen Minderheiten des Kontinents zu lenken: I am twelve stars I‘m 47 territories I am 742 million people I am 150 languages on one continent - only 23 of them are „official“ (Richter, Ich bin Europa 37) Im Modus der Liste verweilend (vgl� hierzu Wetenkamps Artikel im vorliegenden Heft), präsentiert Europa im nächsten Schritt ihre verschiedenen Gesichter, ihre historischen Ambivalenzen� Europa - das immer deutlicher als das Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 391 westeuropäische „avantgardistische Kerneuropa“ (Derrida und Habermas 33) profiliert wird - ist einerseits Hort größter zivilisatorischer und kultureller Errungenschaften, gleichzeitig aber auch der Schauplatz ungeheurer Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit: I‘m all your wars I‘m all your liberties […] my parents were nazis, were humanists, were discoverers, were colonialists went to North America and killed all the Indians, raped South America, I went to Australia and committed genocide, I took most of Asia, I took most of Africa, I forced Africa to speak MY LANGUAGES and to believe in MY BIBLE I AM HIGH CULTURE I AM ART I AM BEETHOVEN I AM SHAKESPEARE I AM WORLD HERITAGE (Richter, Ich bin Europa 37) Richter zeichnet also kein eindeutiges Europa-Bild, sondern lässt wie im freien Assoziationsspiel mehrere Bilder entstehen, die aus der Akkumulation disparater Eigenschaften, geistesgeschichtlicher Erscheinungen und historischer Verantwortungen resultieren� Europa erscheint somit als ein verführerischer Sehnsuchtsort - „I AM EVERYTHING YOU DESIRE“ (37) -, aber hinter der Fassade von Kultur, Wohlstand und Fortschritt versteckt sich ein jahrhundertelang von Kriegen zerrissener Kontinent, der durch Kolonialismus und Ausbeutung reich geworden ist und mit Indifferenz weiter nach Profit strebt: I DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MAINTAIN MY WEALTH I fuck up the climate I let little children work for me in China and Bangladesh, I sell weapons to African tribes and Arab dictators (ebd�) Offensichtlich bietet Richter kein apologetisches Europa-Bild, sondern integriert in den Diskurs zur Identität des Kontinents auch dessen problematische Geschichte, mitsamt aller Verbrechen, die auf seinem Boden und in seinen Kolonien begangen worden sind - und werden� 10 Zynisch akzeptiert Richters Europa-Figur Konflikte und Gewalt solange Chaos und Instabilität außerhalb der Kontinentsgrenzen bleiben: „I WANT THE VIOLENCE TO BE ELSEWHERE / NOT HERE / STAY OUT OF MY TERRITORY“ (39)� Ihre eigene Geschichte verdrängend, weigert sich Europa, Geflüchtete anzunehmen, um die Sicherheit ihrer Grenzen zu gewährleisten� So deutet die Europa-Figur ausdrücklich auf Frontex hin, die Europäische Grenz- und Küstenwache, die jedoch angesichts der kriegsbedingten Migrationsbewegungen weitgehend machtlos geworden ist: „They are coming they are entering my borders / Frontex is not protecting me anymore / And I feel so old so exhausted“ 392 Daniele Vecchiato (39)� 11 Am Ende des Monologs erscheint Europa dermaßen verwirrt und überfordert, dass sie fast Mitleid beim Zuschauer erweckt: Right now I am not sure where to go backwards forwards or make no movement at all […] I am getting afraid of my own people My own people don‘t trust me They don‘t trust my parliament They don‘t trust my currency I AM CONFUSED I am afraid I don‘t know WHO I AM I have no identity There is a lot of FEAR (ebd�) FEAR stellt die Krise der europäischen Identität in einen direkten Zusammenhang mit dem Aufkommen rechtspopulistischer 12 Bewegungen, die in den letzten Jahren für erstaunlich viele Menschen attraktiv geworden sind� Während das verunsicherte Europa nicht in der Lage ist, seine Identität „jenseits der freien Zirkulation von Waren und der gemeinsamen Währung“ zu definieren, füllen die neuen Rechten diese Leere „mit einfachen, hetzerischen und ausgrenzenden Antworten“ (Haarmann 245)� 13 Die Krise Europas wird im Laufe des Stücks spezifischer mit der Krise der Europäischen Union identifiziert� Diese hat, dem Stück zufolge, in der Uneinigkeit der Union, im Mangel einer wirklich gemeinsamen Politik und in der fehlenden Konstruktion einer gesamteuropäischen Nation ihren Ursprung: I am not a unique nation I am a group of individualists I move in many many different directions I am torn in many different directions I am torn and twisted (Richter, Ich bin Europa 38) In diesen Zeilen, die den Antagonismus konkurrierender Nationalstaaten als Grund für den aktuellen Zustand von Zerrissenheit in der Europäischen Union plakativ machen, scheint Richter die Idee einer „nachnationalen Demokratie“ aufzugreifen, für die Robert Menasse in Der europäische Landbote (2012) und in zahlreichen anderen Aufsätzen plädiert hat� 14 Dieser Idee zufolge sollte die EU eine stärkere supranationale Identität entwickeln, die den Partikularismen der Staaten inklusive und solidarische Wertvorstellungen entgegensetzt, um eine Rückkehr der Nationalismen zu vermeiden: Damit das fragile, orientierungslose Europa wieder zu sich finden und eine wirkungsvolle Opposition gegen das Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 393 Avancieren der „Zombies“ leisten kann, muss es einträchtiger denken und handeln, die Egoismen der einzelnen Staaten durch Verträge und Reformen auflösen und die internen Konfliktsituationen harmonisieren� Diese in FEAR nur implizit angedeuteten Bedeutungsschichten erfahren im Stück Safe Places, das im Juni 2016 - mitten in der Zeit des Brexit-Referendums - entstanden ist 15 und am 9� Oktober desselben Jahres am Schauspiel Frankfurt uraufgeführt wurde, deutlichere Konturen� Ähnlich wie FEAR weist auch dieses Stück die Form einer Textmontage auf, wobei der dokumentarische Charakter hier weniger prominent ist und sich die Schauspieler vor allem in langen, intensiven Monologen äußern, die den modernen „Denkrausch“ versprachlichen, jenes „Zuviel“ an Bildern und Gedanken, das im literarischen Medium „bearbeitet, strukturiert, geordnet werden will“ (Richter, Disconnected 94)� Zugleich ist diese Tendenz zum Selbstgespräch, die sich auch in anderen Werken Richters feststellen lässt, Ausdruck einer allmählichen, verzweifelten Vereinsamung des Individuums, das - mit der Größe der Weltereignisse konfrontiert - Momente der Überforderung, Erschöpfung und Ungewissheit erlebt, die es mit niemandem teilen kann: „Dialoge sind nicht mehr zeitgemäß� Menschen reden nicht miteinander“ (Richter, Ich bin Europa 216)� Deutlicher noch als FEAR kreist Safe Places um die aktuellen Probleme Europas, um seine Identität, um sein wachsendes Bedürfnis nach Sicherheit� Im Herzen des Stückes stehen fünf Monologe mit dem vielsagenden Titel Festung Europa, die zum Teil erweiterte Abschnitte des Ich bin Europa-Monologs sind� In diesen Monologen wird die Krise der EU geschildert, die von finanziellen und gesellschaftlichen Problemen, von Migrationsphänomenen und dem ubiquitären Euroskeptizismus begleitet wird (Richter, Ich bin Europa 161—71)� Die Idee der Festung, die die innere Einheit des Kontinents bei äußerer Abschottung des „Fremden“, des nicht-europäischen „Anderen“ suggeriert, wird heutzutage in öffentlichen Debatten von Vertretern xenophober Bewegungen häufig in positivem Sinne verwendet� Da der Begriff „Festung Europa“ historisch aufgeladen ist und gerade während des Zweiten Weltkriegs in der nationalsozialistischen Propaganda den vom Deutschen Reich und Italien besetzten Teil Europas bezeichnete, scheint Richter mit dessen Verwendung darauf aufmerksam zu machen, dass zwischen den Neuen und alten Rechten sowohl ideologische als auch sprachliche Kontinuitäten bestehen� Die Monologe Europas werden in Safe Places durch die Slogans eines „VÖLKISCHE[N] WIR, DAS IMMER LAUTER WIRD“, unterbrochen (166)� Dies mutiert schnell zu einem „WIR, DEM ALLES ZU VIEL WIRD“, nach dem Stichwort: „WIR SCHAFFEN DAS NICHT“, einer Persiflage von Merkels bekannter Parole (168)� Kontrapunktisch tritt auch ein „Fremder aus dem Krisengebiet“ auf 394 Daniele Vecchiato die Bühne, der nicht versteht, warum die Europäer Angst vor ihm haben, da er ja eigentlich vor dem Terror geflüchtet ist, um in einem neuen Land Schutz zu suchen: „I have NOWHERE to go� / So I come to your territories for safety and you‘re scared of me! You‘re scared of someone who is running away from war, whose children got killed, you‘re scared of someone who / has no safe place“ (167)� 16 Hier wird deutlich, dass der im Titel des Stückes anklingende Sicherheitsbedarf nicht nur aus der Perspektive der Europäer gesehen wird, sondern - dem Richter‘schen Prinzip der Polyphonie getreu - auch die Sehnsucht der Flüchtlinge nach „sicheren Orten“ zum Ausdruck bringt mit dem Ziel, die Empathie der Zuschauer zu fordern� Die Einzelstimme des „Fremden“ ist jedoch zu leise angesichts der Rhetorik der Festung Europa, die inzwischen mit derjenigen des völkischen WIR nahezu deckungsgleich geworden ist: ES IST NICHT PLATZ FÜR ALLE DA� Das tut uns leid, aber es gibt Grenzen� UND WIR BRAUCHEN GRENZEN, sonst verlieren wir die Kontrolle, und das wollen wir nicht� (170) Durch dieses Nebeneinander von Stimmen, das die EU-Krise und die Migrationswellen der letzten Jahre begleitet und kommentiert, erscheint das Stück als eine Art Think Tank, in dem Ideen entwickelt werden sollen, „wie das auseinanderbrechende Europa zu retten sei“ (163)� Stichwortartig wirft ein Schauspieler Fragen zur Zukunft der EU auf: Was WOLLEN wir? Haben wir überhaupt gemeinsame Ziele? […] Haben wir eine gemeinsame Erzählung? Ist Nation ein falsches Konzept? Kann eine europäische Republik die alten Nationalstaaten ablösen? Ist die Europäische Union mittlerweile ein so unübersichtliches, komplexes System, dass es einstürzen MUSS und Platz machen muss, wofür? Was kommt dann? Was kommt NACH dieser Union? Wonach SEHNEN wir uns? Gibt es das überhaupt, dieses „Wir“? (ebd�) Die Frage nach dem europäischen „Wir“ ist nach dem Brexit, der ja zusammen mit den Migrationsphänomenen den zeitgeschichtlichen Kontext des Stückes bildet, drängender denn je� Mit dem Hinweis auf die Möglichkeit einer „europäischen Republik“ bezieht sich Richter explizit auf die von Menasse sowie von Politikwissenschaftlern wie Ulrike Guérot vertretene Idee einer endgültigen Überwindung der Nationalstaaten und die Gründung einer „transnationalen Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 395 Demokratie“ als einzige Lösung für die bereits fortgeschrittene Krise der EU (vgl� Guérot und Menasse; zu Richters Rezeption dieser Theorien vgl� Baschung)� An anderer Stelle fragt sich eine Figur: „Wie schaffen wir ein Europa, in dem nicht jede Nation nur damit beschäftigt ist, DIE GRÖSSTEN VORTEILE für ihre eigenen Landsleute herauszuholen, SONDERN WIRKLICH ECHT gesamteuropäisch gedacht wird“ (Richter, Ich bin Europa 176)� Diese Frage bleibt im Stück offen� Was den Zuschauern als Europäern allerdings nahegelegt wird, ist, dass die Rückkehr der Nationalismen eine gefährliche Involution zur Folge haben könnte, durch die der Kontinent in seine dunkle, kriegerische Vergangenheit zurück katapultiert werden könnte� Somit wird Europa - oder, besser, die Europäische Union - im Stück auch als ein historisches Friedens- und Kooperationsprojekt dargestellt, was heutzutage allzu oft in Vergessenheit gerät� Die Szene, in der ein Schauspieler vom jüngsten Abendessen mit der Familie erzählt, ist in diesem Sinne erhellend: Während die jüngeren Verwandten einstimmig und wie in einem Trance-Zustand gegen die „Asylschmarotzerinvasoren“ schimpfen (180), protestiert leise der Opa, der das Dritte Reich miterlebt hat: „die sind alle noch da, die sind nicht weg, weißt du, die waren nur eine Zeitlang unsichtbar, aber die wollen wieder zurück an die Macht, die wollen wieder zurück“ (181)� Diese Gegenüberstellung ist einerseits interessant, weil sie eine Umkehrung der geläufigen Stereotypen bei der Darstellung zwischengenerationeller Verhältnisse in deutschen Familien anbietet: Es ist nicht der Nazi-Opa, sondern die jüngere Generation, die Europa gefährdet� Andererseits hebt die Szene die Bedeutung des Gedächtnisses als das einzige wirksame Mittel gegen die Auferstehung der „Zombies“ hervor - ein Thema, das Richter am Ende seines Stückes mit einem längeren Zitat aus Menasses Europäischer Landbote (7—10) noch stärker akzentuiert� Mit dem Menasse-Zitat wird an die Geburt der Europäischen Union als Antidot gegen Nationalismen erinnert, die Europa in seiner langen Geschichte von Kriegen und Konflikten zerrissen haben: Wenn man auf einer Europakarte alle politischen Grenzen, die es im Lauf der geschriebenen Geschichte je gegeben hat, mit einem schwarzen Stift einzeichnet, dann liegt am Ende über diesem Kontinent ein […] engmaschiges schwarzes Netz […]� Wenn man dann auf dieser Karte für jeden Krieg, der in Europa je stattgefunden hat, mit einem roten Stift eine Linie zwischen den kriegführenden Parteien zieht, […] dann verschwindet das Netz der Grenzen völlig unter einem rotgefärbten Feld� […] Ich habe die Erfahrung gemacht, dass es die meisten Menschen langweilt, wenn man […] die Geschichte der EU erzählt� Ich bin ein Freund dieser Langeweile� Denn ich wünsche weder mir noch jemandem anderen die zweifellos extrem spannende Geschichte, die ein Zerbrechen der EU und der Rückfall in ein Europa der konkurrierenden Nationen […] zur Folge hätte[n]� (Richter, Ich bin Europa 192—93) 396 Daniele Vecchiato Menasse sieht das europäische Projekt als die Realisierung einer „Assoziation freier Regionen, definiert durch Friede, Demokratie, kulturelle Vielfalt und soziale Gerechtigkeit“ (Menasse, „EUtopia“ 43)� Dieses positive Bild, das auf die Gründungsprinzipien der Europäischen Union zurückgreift, scheint sowohl von der Europa-Figur in FEAR als auch von den fremdenfeindlichen, aggressiven Stimmen in Safe Places stark abzuweichen� Richter verwendet es als Kontrastfolie, als Mahnung zu einem menschlicheren, solidarischeren Zusammenleben, als ein utopisch angelegtes Modell: Gegen das Europa der Populismen und Nationalismen müsse das inklusive Projekt einer auf gemeinsamen Werten basierenden Europäischen Union gerettet werden, um den „Rückfall in die Barbarei“ zu vermeiden� 17 Zusammenfassend lässt sich festhalten, dass Falk Richter mit den Stücken FEAR und Safe Places über den Zustand des europäischen Projekts in Zeiten seiner größten Krise Bilanz zieht� Im Gegensatz zu anderen Europa-Stücken der Gegenwart, die sich primär mit den Themen Migration und Flüchtlingspolitik beschäftigen (wie Elfriede Jelineks Die Schutzbefohlenen, UA 2013) oder alternative Europa-Vorstellungen und die Mechanismen von Demokratie und politischer Partizipation erkunden (wie Preenacting Europe der Gruppe Interrobang, UA 2014, oder Hausbesuch Europa von Rimini Protokoll, UA 2015), setzt sich Richter mit der Identität Europas sowie der Rückkehr alter Nationalismen auseinander, die das Ideal eines progressiven, inklusiven, offenen Europas bedrohen� Obwohl sein Urteil über die Geschichte und die Gegenwart Europas ambivalent ist, erweisen sich beide Stücke insgesamt als Plädoyer für die Europäische Union, die als Bollwerk angesehen wird gegen jedwede von rechtspopulistischen Parteien in Europa verbreitete Form von Angst und Misstrauen� Mit Menasse sieht Richter in der angestrebten Überwindung der Nationalstaaten und der Formung einer „nachnationalen“ europäischen Politik ein mögliches Antidot gegen den Aufstieg illiberaler Bewegungen, die die Entfaltung eines friedlichen, demokratischen, vielfältigen Europa bedrohen� Programmatisch erprobt Richter mit diesen Stücken radikale ästhetische Mittel, um die Stimme zu erheben gegen die „Hassmenschen, die in ihren Netzwerken und auf der Straße ihr Unverständnis gegenüber der Welt, ihre Angst davor, zu verschwinden, ihren Hass auf alles, was sie nicht verstehen, so laut herausbrüllen, dass […] alle vorsichtigen Ansätze für ein anderes Miteinander weggebrüllt werden“ (Richter, Ich bin Europa 176)� Gleichzeitig versucht er im dramatischen Medium, die Komplexität und Nuanciertheit politischer und sozialer Phänomene zum Ausdruck zu bringen und allen Beteiligten - auch den im öffentlichen Diskurs marginalisierten - eine Stimme zu verleihen� Damit entsteht auf der Bühne ein politischer Gegendiskurs zu den vereinfachenden und nivellierenden Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 397 Darstellungen der Rechtspopulisten, der die Zuschauer dazu anspornt, über die Vielschichtigkeit politischer Zusammenhänge zu reflektieren und sich nicht von demagogischen Sprüchen und Lösungsansätzen verführen zu lassen� Notes 1 Hierzu vgl� Lützeler, Delvaux und Papiór, Frevert, Segebrecht, Biendarra und Hart� 2 Aufgrund der ökonomischen Krise von 2008, der Migrationsphänomene im Zuge des Arabischen Frühlings, der Rückkehr verschiedener Formen von Nationalismen, des Austritts des Vereinigten Königreichs aus der Europäischen Union und der wachsenden Skepsis gegenüber den sogenannten „Brüssel-Bürokraten“ können die letzten Jahre als einen der schwersten Einschnitte in der Geschichte des geeinten Europa betrachtet werden (vgl� Beck)� 3 Die bisher wichtigsten Beiträge finden sich im komparatistisch angelegten Sammelband Vorstellung Europa (2017) von Bloch, Heimböckel und Tropper sowie in der neuesten Studie Performing Statelessness in Europe (2018) von Wilmer� Zum Thema der Migration(en) mit besonderem Blick auf deutschsprachige Bühnen vgl� auch Sharifi und Wilmer� 4 Der Begriff „Europa-Diskurs“ wird hier mit Christine Ivanovic als heuristische Kategorie für die Analyse von Texten verwendet, „in denen in konstitutiver Funktion Europa als Spielort fungiert oder als Thema verhandelt wird“ und die „mittelbar oder unmittelbar auf politische Einflussnahme abziel[en]“ (Ivanovic 36)� 5 Die Analyse der Stücke bezieht sich vorwiegend auf die veröffentlichten Textfassungen in der Sammlung Ich bin Europa (2017), mit gelegentlichen Beobachtungen zu den stilistischen und darstellerischen Merkmalen der Inszenierungen an der Berliner Schaubühne (FEAR, UA 2015, Regie von Falk Richter) bzw� am Schauspiel Frankfurt (Safe Places, UA 2016, Regie von Falk Richter und Anouk van Dijk)� 6 Soziologin und Politikwissenschaftlerin Hannah von Grönheim argumentiert, dass es sich bei der Bezeichnung „Flüchtlingskrise“ nur um die „Konstruktion eines Sicherheits-bedarfs“ handelt, mit der nahegelegt wird, dass Europa durch Migrationsphänomene bedroht ist, um eine Politik der Abschottung und Abwehr zu legitimieren und zu verstärken (104—05)� 7 Die „Demo für alle“ ist die deutsche Version der „Manif pour tous“, einer Bewegung, die sich 2012 in Frankreich als Reaktion auf die Einführung der gleichgeschlechtlichen Ehe und des Adoptionsrechts homosexueller Paare gebildet hat� In Deutschland wurden die Proteste von der Initiative „Be- 398 Daniele Vecchiato sorgte Eltern Baden-Württemberg“ im Zuge der Debatte um den Bildungsplan 2015 initiiert, der darauf abzielte, die Akzeptanz sexueller Vielfalt von Schülerinnen und Schülern sowie die Toleranz gegenüber Regenbogen- und Patchworkfamilien zu fördern� Darin sahen „Demo für alle“-Teilnehmer nicht nur eine Verletzung traditioneller christlicher Werte, sondern auch das Risiko einer vermeintlichen „Frühsexualisierung“ von Kindern durch eine nebulös evozierte „Gender-Theorie“ (vgl� Hark und Villa)� 8 Die Wiederverwertung und Variation einzelner Textstücke in verschiedenen Dramen ist keine Seltenheit im Werk Falk Richters� Wenn dies in einigen Fällen der Notwendigkeit geschuldet sein mag, in kurzer Zeit Texte für die Bühne zu produzieren (eine Tendenz, die zum Beispiel Kathrin Röggla als ein bedenkenswertes Charakteristikum des Gegenwartstheaters beschreibt, vgl� Röggla 13), handelt es sich beim Ich bin Europa-Monolog eher um ein gedankliches Kontinuum, das sich durch die Stücke der gleichnamigen Sammlung zieht� 9 Wie Sigrid Weigel gezeigt hat, ist die geschlechtliche Konnotation von Gründungsmythen und allegorischen Stadtdarstellungen der Ausdruck patriarchalischer Denkmuster, weil sie in den meisten Fällen den weiblichen Körper zum reinen Signifikanten, zum entsinnlichten und entindividualisierten „Zeichenkörper“ degradiert (168)� Zu den genderspezifischen und interkulturellen Aspekten des Mythos von Europa siehe auch Frevert und Pernau� 10 Auf kultur- und geschichtswissenschaftlicher Ebene ist die Debatte um ein gemeinsames „europäisches Gedächtnis“ bereits avanciert (vgl� etwa Rigney oder Friedemann et al�)� 11 Frontex ist kein neues Thema auf deutschsprachigen Bühnen: Bereits 2013 inszenierte Hans Werner Kroesinger am Berliner Theater Hebbel am Ufer die dokumentarische Arbeit FRONTex SECURITY und stellte dabei die Frage nach der Einseitigkeit der Sicherheit in Europa, die nur noch nach innen und nicht für die Geflüchteten zu gelten scheint, die Schutz suchen� 12 Der schwer zu konturierende und stark debattierte „Populismus“-Begriff wird hier nach den Thesen des Politikwissenschaftlers Jan-Werner Müller (129—35) als eine antipluralistische Form von Politik verstanden, die auf der Unterscheidung zwischen Volk und Elite besteht und vorhandene Stimmungslagen durch bestimmte Strategien zum Machterwerb verstärkt und ausnutzt� Zum Verhältnis von Gegenwartsliteratur und Populismus vgl� u�a� Schaffrick� 13 Den Soziologen Martin Riesebrodt und Ernst-Dieter Lantermann zufolge wird der Rückgriff auf Fundamentalismen, Nationalismen und regressive Ideologien gerade in Kontexten von politischer und sozialer Komplexität, Der Diskurs um Rechtspopulismus, Migration und nachnationale Identität 399 von Unsicherheit und Unübersichtlichkeit besonders attraktiv, weil er alte Weltbilder und einfache, klare Antworten verspricht (zitiert in Schuster 254—55)� 14 Vgl� etwa die Aufsätze im Band Heimat ist die schönste Utopie. Reden (wir) über Europa, besonders Es gibt nichts Schöneres (57—69), Heimat ist die schönste Utopie (70—82), Zukunftsmusik (120—32), Europa Countdown (147—57) und FAQ Europa (158—75)� 15 Der Brexit wird jedoch nur ein einziges Mal im Stück erwähnt, nämlich auf S� 162� 16 Die Verwendung verschiedener Sprachen ist konstitutiver Bestandteil des Theaters von Falk Richter, der mit internationalen Ensembles arbeitet� Auffällig ist in FEAR, dass Englisch sowohl von der Figur Europa als Sprache der internationalen Kommunikation, als auch vom Flüchtling verwendet wird, um seine „Fremdheit“ auch sprachlich zu markieren� In Safe Places wiederum spricht Europa Deutsch� 17 Hier zitiert Richter aus einem Video-Interview von Menasse, das auf Youtube zu finden ist: http: / / www�youtube�com/ watch? v=bUHJF-qFCpA (Minute 5: 05)� Works Cited Barner, Friedrich, and Thomas Ostermeier� „Liberales Lebensumfeld�“ Theater heute 11 (2016): 69—70� Baschung, Sibylle� „Europa sind wir alle - und wer macht‘s? “ Ich bin Europa. 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Biendarra University of California, Irvine Department of European Languages and Studies HIB 135 Irvine, CA 92697-3150 anke�biendarra@uci�edu Prof.-Friederike Eigler Department of German, ICC 465- Georgetown University- Washington DC 20057-- eiglerf@georgetown�edu Prof. Marike Janzen Humanities Program 1440 Jayhawk Blvd� Bailey Hall, Room 308 University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66045-7594 mjanzen@ku�edu Prof. Karolina May-Chu Department of Foreign Languages and Literature University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee P�O� Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413 maychu@uwm�edu Prof. Maria Mayr- Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Memorial University of Newfoundland 232 Elizabeth Avenue St� John’s, NL- A1B 3X9 Canada mmayr@mun�ca Dr. Daniele Vecchiato Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari Via E� Vendramini 13 35137 Padova Italy daniele�vecchiato@unipd�it Dr. Lena Wetenkamp Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Fachbereich 05 - Deutsches Institut Jakob Welder-Weg 18 55128 Mainz wetenkamp@uni-mainz�de Prof. Ian W. Wilson Centre College 600 W� Walnut St� Danville, KY 40422 ian�wilson@centre�edu Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwis senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik senschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spra \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ 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Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ cherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft \ Slawistik \ Skandinavistik \ BWL \ Wirtschaft \ Tourismus \ VWL \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Maschinenbau \ Politikwissenschaft \ Elektrotechnik \ Mathematik & Statistik \ Management \ Altphilologie \ Sport \ Gesundheit \ Romanistik \ Theologie \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguis \ Kulturwissenschaften \ Soziologie \ Theaterwissenschaft \ Geschichte \ Spracherwerb \ Philosophie \ Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft \ Linguistik \ Literaturgeschichte \ Anglistik \ Bauwesen \ Fremdsprachendidaktik \ DaF \ Germanistik \ Literaturwissenschaft \ Rechtswissenschaft \ Historische Sprachwissenschaft Juliane Dube, Carolin Führer Balladen Didaktische Grundlagen und Unterrichtspraxis 2020, 342 Seiten €[D] 24,90 ISBN 978-3-8252-5389-9 e ISBN 978-3-8385-5389-4 BUCHTIPP Die Ballade ist als klassischer Unterrichtsgegenstand fester Bestandteil des Literaturunterrichts. Ihr Potential für literarisches Lernen mit unterschiedlichen Ausgangsbedingungen will der Band neu entdecken, indem sowohl kanonische als auch jüngere Balladen im Konzept eines themenorientierten und mediensensiblen Unterrichts präsentiert werden. Den Schwerpunkt bilden balladendidaktische Grundlagen, praktische Unterrichtsvorschläge sowie vielfältig einsetzbare Kopiervorlagen, die als Zusatzmaterial online zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Der Band gibt damit Lehramtsstudierenden, ReferendarInnen und Lehrenden des Faches Deutsch Einblick in aktuelle fachliche Diskussionen um die Ballade und deren Vermittlung. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG \ Dischingerweg 5 \ 72070 Tübingen \ Germany Tel. +49 (0)7071 97 97 0 \ Fax +49 (0)7071 97 97 11 \ info@narr.de \ www.narr.de ISSN 0010-1338 T h e m e n h eft: E urope in Contemporary G erman- L anguage Literature G a s th e ra u s g e b e rin n e n: A nke S . B ie nd a rra und Frie d e rike E igle r A nke S . B ie nd a rra a nd Frie d e rike E igle r: I ntrod u c tion L e n a Wete nka mp: E u rop a al s L i s te . E n u m e rative Ve r fa h re n b ei E n z e n s b e rg e r, G a uß u n d R a ku s a A nke S . B ie nd a rra: F ra gile R ealitie s : D i s c u s s ion s A m on g Write r s A bout Conte m pora r y E u rop e Frie d e rike E igle r: T h e E u rop ea n H ou s e of H i s tor y a n d R e c e nt N ovel s b y J e n n y E r p e n b e c k a n d R ob e r t M e n a s s e I a n W. W il s on: E u rop ea n S p a c e s in B a r b a ra H onig m a n n ’ s S tra s bou rg M a ria M ayr: T h e E u rop ea n F utu re of Po s t s o c iali s t N o s talgia in G e r m a n- L a n g u a g e L ite ratu re A bout F or m e r Yu go s la via M a rike J a n z e n: M e c h a ni s m s of E xc lu s ion a n d I nvi s ible I n cor poration into th e E U : R efu g e e s in G e r m a n y a s E u rop ea n s Ka rolin a M ay- C hu: R ea din g G e r m a n y, E u rop e , a n d th e World in A b b a s K hid e r ’ s N ovel O h r fe ig e D a niele Ve c c hiato: “ I c h bin E u rop a ” : D e r D i s ku r s u m R e c ht s pop uli s m u s , M ig ration u n d n a c h n ation ale I d e ntität in Falk R i c hte r s F E A R u n d S a fe P l a c e s www.narr.digital