Die Konzeption von Heimat im Werk deutscher Schriftsteller iranischer Herkunft
Abstract
This thesis examines the notion of Heimat in the literary production of two German
authors of Iranian origin, Navid Kermani and SAID. It presents a methodological
challenge to the existing approaches to this type of literature, which have tended to
characterise it, as in one way or another hyphenated, thus e.g. as ‘German-Iranian’
literature in our case. Indeed, existing models of analysis have been placing this
literature in discourses that connect with Orientalism and occidental Universalism and
in so doing conform to western traditions of a global universality thesis, which
ultimately, and often contrary to the scholars’ own best intentions, ‘orientalise’ this
literature and its authors. This thesis therefore proposes to study the chosen authors on
a case by case basis rather than through the lens of an all-encompassing theoretical
model.
To enable the proposed case by case analysis the thesis first elaborates on the
evolution, during the last ca. 250 years, of both, the German concept of Heimat and its
Iranian equivalent, Vatan, demonstrating that these Modern notions of collective
identity evolved over time within a framework of remarkable German-Iranian
conceptual interplay, if not utter interdependence.
Based on this the thesis arrives at the conclusion that SAIDs conception of Heimat for
all the author’s rejection of any form of nationalism remains within the boundaries of
universalistic worldviews that tend to separate as firmly distinct, ‘Orient’ and
‘Occident’. However, Kermani’s concept of Heimat completely transcends any such
antagonistic juxtapositions and thus this thesis provides a close reading of his unique
and integrative approach to the ‘East’/‘West’ nexus by employing a comparative
methodology that I have termed ‘cultural translation’.
Authors
Nikjamal, NazliCollections
- Theses [4190]