New Germans, New Dutch
Title
New Germans, New Dutch
Subtitle
Literary Interventions
ISBN
9789048502356
Format
eBook PDF
Number of pages
328
Language
English
Publication date
Dimensions
15.6 x 23.4 cm
Table of Contents
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Contents - 8 Acknowledgements - 10 Introduction - 14 I. National Identity - 16 II. Literature of Migration - 52 III. Emine Sevgi Özdamar - 70 IV. Hafid Bouazza - 108 V. Feridun Zaimoglu - 144 VI. Abdelkader Benali - 180 Conclusion - 222 Notes - 234 Works Cited - 292 Index - 320

Liesbeth Minnaard

New Germans, New Dutch

Literary Interventions

In the globalised world of today, traditional definitions of national Self and national Other no longer hold. The unmistakable transformation of German and Dutch societies demands a thorough rethinking of national boundaries on several levels. This book examines how literature of migration intervenes in public discourses on multiculturality in Germany and the Netherlands, epitomised in the strikingly parallel debates on the ‘German Leitkultur’ and the Dutch ‘multicultural drama’ in the year 2000. By juxtaposing detailed analyses of literary work by the Turkish-German writers Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Feridun Zaimoglu and the Moroccan-Dutch writers Abdelkader Benali and Hafid Bouazza, New Germans, New Dutch offers crucial insights into the specific ways in which this literature negotiates its national context of writing. This book demonstrates how German literature of migration seeks alternative forms of community outside the national parameters, whereas the Dutch literature negotiates difference and re-imagines Dutchness within the national framework.
Author

Liesbeth Minnaard

Liesbeth Minnaard is Assistant Professor in literary studies at Leiden University.