Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2005

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

German

Major Professor

Peter Hoyng

Committee Members

Carolyn Hodges, Stephanie Ohnesorg

Abstract

The purpose of the following thesis is to examine the concept of German national literature as part of the discourse on German national identity after unification. I concentrate on one representative of post-Wende German literature--Wladimir Kaminer, a Russian émigré of Jewish descent who immigrated to Germany in 1990 and in the course of ten years became a best-selling German writer. This study is the first scholarly analysis of both Kaminer’s public persona and his writings. On the basis of Kaminer’s interviews with various Russian- and German-speaking media, I focus on his positioning within the discourse on German national identity and identify changes it underwent in the last four years. In order to trace the effect of these transformations on Kaminer’s writings, I utilize an alterity paradigm in comparative reading of two of Kaminer’s collections of stories: Russendisko (2000) and Ich mache mir Sorgen, Mama (2004). This comparison shows that four years after the publication of his first major work Kaminer makes even stronger efforts to undermine a nationality as a stable and essential notion, both on an individual and collective level. He does so by exposing otherness on inter- and intracultural levels and ultimately he focuses on metacultural otherness, i.e., alterity based on characteristics other than nationality. I argue that Kaminer’s conscious choice to live on the verge of two cultures enables him to bring Russian and German cultures closer and establish transnational and transcultural dialogue. Kaminer, thus, becomes a strong voice within the discourse on multicultural Germany as part of redefining German national identity after unification.

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