Interrupted Stories

Written in response to a brutal ethnic conflict in the 1990s, post-Yugoslav literature addresses issues that are still pertinent today. German-speaking authors discussed here use multilingual strategies to explore the complex interplay of linguistic, ethnic and sexual difference in the context of the Yugoslav conflict and wider European sphere..

Written in response to a brutal ethnic conflict that shocked Europeans in the 1990s, post-Yugoslav literature addresses issues that are still pertinent today. Looking at questions of language, gender, memory and identity, this book sheds new light on texts by three post-Yugoslav authors writing in German: Saa Stanii, Marica Bodroi and the lesser-known Austrian author Alma Hadibeganovi. Drawing on sources from history, sociology, feminist theory, trauma studies and linguistics, the author argues that post-Yugoslav texts use multilingual strategies to explore the complex interplay of linguistic, ethnic, gender and sexual difference in the former Yugoslavia and to interrogate the monolingual paradigm dominant in Western Europe. She shows that post-Yugoslav literature written in German and born out of spatial and linguistic dislocation can open up new imaginary possibilities and point to transnational bonds that counter the acute sense of loss and speechlessness induced by trauma. The proposal for this book was the Winner of the 2018 Women in German Studies Book Prize.

Autorentext

Iga Nowicz received her Joint-PhD in German Studies from King's College London and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She has taught at universities in London, Berlin, Flensburg and Vienna and is currently a research fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her interests include comparative literature, gender studies, decolonial theory, literary translation and creative writing.

Inhalt

Contents: German Responses to the Yugoslav Wars - Linguistic Impurity and De- constructed Ethnicities in Saa Stanii 's Novel Wie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert - Transnational Feminist Solidarities and Multilingual Futures in kirschholz und alte gefühle by Marica Bodroi - Linguistic Transgressions and Displacement in the Work of Alma Hadibeganovi .