| This dissertation undertakes an interdisciplinary investigation of recent Turkish-German literature and film. Focusing on the motif of travel, it analyzes the ways in which novels and feature films since unification have constructed notions of identity and borders, self and other, of Turkey, Germany, and the fluid boundaries between these ostensibly separate worlds. In doing so, the dissertation takes as its point of departure Leslie Adelson's powerful 2003 critique of texts and approaches that would suspend Turkish-German subjects "between two worlds," separating them from German culture rather than situating them in the complex, hybrid realities of both Turkey and Germany today. With their emphasis on travel and movement, I claim, novels and films since unification mark a departure from earlier forms of Gastarbeiterliteratur and -film and have contributed significantly to unsettling the troublesome paradigm of a static "in-between.";To trace this shift, chapter one analyzes two novels that narrate the travels of German protagonists in Turkey. I show how both Selim oder Die Gabe der Rede (1990) by Sten Nadolny and Der weinende Granatapfel (1990) by Alev Tekinay, first mobilize the premises of the "two worlds" paradigm at the level of character and then undo those premises through narration. Chapter two analyzes the novels Selam Berlin (2003) by Yade Kara and Die Brucke vom Goldenen Horn (1998) by Emine Sevgi Ozdamar. Mapping their protagonists' transformations onto socio-political transitions in Turkey and Germany, the novels destabilize presumed borders and chart connections between Turkey and Germany. The third chapter studies bi-directional journeys in Fatih Akin's films, Head-On (2004) and The Edge of Heaven (2007). It analyzes new trajectories, such as second generation homecoming travels to Turkey and a back-and-forth movement between Turkish and German worlds. Destabilizing presumed understandings of fixed borders and identities, mapping transnational connections, and revealing shared histories, the novels and films analyzed in this dissertation offer ways of thinking beyond the divisions ostensibly inscribed in cultural, ethnic, and national forms of belonging. |
