Questioning the Canon: Counter-Discourse and the Minority Perspective in Contemporary German Literature (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9783110674361)

To what extent do minority writers feel represented by the literary canon of a nation and its body of "great works"? To what extent do they adhere to, or contest, the supposedly universal values conveyed through those texts and how do they situate their own works within the national tradition? Building on Edward W. Said's contrapuntal readings and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's reflections on the voice of the subaltern, this monograph examines the ways in which Rafik Schami, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, and Feridun Zaimoglu have re-read, challenged, and adapted the German canon. Similar to other writers in postcolonial contexts, their work on the canon entails an inquiry into history and a negotiation of their relation to the texts and representations that define the "host" nation. Through close analyses of the works of these non-native German authors, the book investigates the intersection between politics, ethics, and aesthetics in their work, focusing on the appropriation and re-evaluation of cultural legacies in German-language literature. Opening up a rich critical dialogue with scholars of German Studies and Postcolonial Theory, Christine Meyer provides a fresh perspective on German-language minority literature since the reunification.

Author: Christine Meyer
ISBN-10: 311067436X
ISBN-13: 9783110674361
Publisher: de Gruyter
Language: English
Published: 07/05/2021
Pages: 354
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.61lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.94d