Literarische Mehrsprachigkeit und Transkulturalität. Der Dialog zwischen den Kulturen und das Echo von Mimikry und sprachlicher Hybridität im Werk deutsch-türkischer Autorinnen

The beginnings of migration literature in Germany were noticeable 20 years after the first agreements for work enlistment in the 1950s between countries around the Mediterranean on the one hand and Germany on the other. Well into the 1980s migration literature was considered to be a politically moti-vated, autobiographical and experiential kind of literature produced by migrants, most of whom were initially foreign workers. Today migrant/- migration literature or intercultural literature is considered to be the work of a generation of authors originating from families with migration experience, or migrants themselves. It is the linguistic hybridity and thematic alterity in these works which form the pre-condition for the dialogue between cultures and languages; a dialogue initiated by the successful examples of migration literature currently available on the market. Indeed, a considerable number of German-Turkish authors ’works enrich the cultural and literary scene in Germany. The article analyses the use of hybridity and mimicry as central themes in the novel Der Mond isst die Sterne auf (1998) by Dilek Zapctioglu. This novel is then compared with the stories in the collection Mutterzunge (1998) and with a novel by Emine S. Özdamar, more specifically with the novel Die Brücke vom goldenen Horn (1998), exploring language and thematic hybridization. Central themes in migration literature are issues such as the loss of the homeland, culture shock, alienation, life in and between two languages and cultures, as well as everyday, subliminal discrimination and the accumulating communication problems. The novels can therefore be defined thematically on the basis of their changing time and space coordinates, their shared theme of space diversity, their oscillation between the homeland and the foreign land, the linguistic diversity of their voices and the reflection they offer on the diaspora.

Cultural values in American and Spanish TV advertising at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic

This article discusses the similarities and differences found in some Spanish and American television advertisements broadcast at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. To carry out this study, forty advertisements shown on television in the two countries during the months of March and April 2020 were analysed. Qualitative and quantitative analysis considered the cultural dimensions of identity, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity. In addition, the Chi-square formula was also applied in order to confirm that the differences found in both groups of adverts were not significantly important. The results show that a great deal of similar messages and even expressions was conveyed to both audiences in both countries, although some differences were also found. Besides, the main goal of these ads in both groups was to comfort the audience, and not to clearly promote or advertise the product. Thus, this study demonstrates once again that despite the differences that these two cultural groups display, and which are usually portrayed in intercultural literature, the context highly influences the values typically assigned to a linguistic community. That is reflected in the discourse of speakers, and it is the reason why we can find values opposite to those expected in a cultural group.

Didactic dimensions of intercultural literature

Intercultural literary studies in the field of literary scholarship represent a research perspective with a specific theoretical and methodological profile, which is based on two prerequisites: 1) cultural differences can be important in the study and perception of literature, and 2) literature and its reception can reveal these relative differences. In this way culture is interpreted as a category of differentiation, but also as a productive source of exchange, contact, dissemination and integration. Intercultural literary research focuses on specific issues concerning the creation and perception of the literary text, as well as the didactic and methodological aspects of acquiring intercultural competence through it. Literary texts lead, on one hand, to enrichment, curiosity and excitement in students, and, on the other, to the diversification of methodological techniques in foreign language teaching. Literary texts can motivate students and foster their personal development through new methods that not only encourage them to speak, but also inform them about the culturally specific point of view, through the content of the text.

Foreword

This publication on virtual exchange is incredibly timely, coming as it does during the pandemic, when universities are increasingly turning to virtual exchange as a viable tool for intercultural learning, particularly when travel and physical exchange are challenging to nearly impossible. The chapters in this publication provide useful and vetted insights into how to implement virtual exchange in practical and concrete ways, from using wikis in online learning to developing mentor/learner relationships in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to a web-based virtual exchange project. This kind of practical information, grounded in research, is needed now more than ever as universities turn to virtual exchange and online learning as a way forward even in the post-pandemic world. Moreover, given that so much of the intercultural literature is published in the Global North, these chapters provide much-needed insights from uniquely Asia-Pacific perspectives.

TEXTOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MANUSCRIPT TEXTS OF THE SONG «BOZUGLAN», AHMETBEK AND ZHUSUPBEK»

In this article, manuscripts of epos «Bozoglan, Ahmetbek, Zhusipbek» published in Kazan in scientific work "Babalarsozi" and manuscripts of epos "Yusuf beg - Ahmet beg" from the fund of manuscripts of Academy of Science of Turkmenistan are analyzed. Explanations to some words, phrases and meanings from text are given in the Kazakh version of manuscripts. In our article, we compare the Kazakh-Turkmen text of the poem, compare some words and concepts that contradict each other or cannot convey meaning in verses, comparing them with detailed examples. We have considered that the results of our research and evaluation will be useful to future researchers in this area. Analysis of the works was done according to intercultural literature researches and methodologies build upon them. This article states that historical literature of early periods, should be analyzed considering the features, literary traditions, and usage of words of that period.

Reconceptualizing intercultural communicative competence: A multinational perspective

Given current trends in international education, many institutions of higher education in the United States and elsewhere seek to prepare students for life and careers in a globalized world. For many institutions, this means internationalizing curriculum and campus, increasing educational exchange opportunities (for both domestic and international students), and developing intercultural abilities in their students. In the process, several questions arise: (1) which strategies are effective, (2) what research gaps exist, (3) what standards measure quality, and (4) what factors determine the quality and effectiveness of their efforts while lacking evidence about competencies? This article explores a possible response to the questions posed drawing on half a century of experience in educational exchange and intercultural service, a review of the intercultural literature, plus two multinational research projects. These combined efforts led to an expansion and (re)conceptualization of the seminar theme of intercultural effectiveness. Despite more than 50 terms found in the literature (including “intercultural effectiveness”) (see, among others, Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2004; Edelstein, 2014; Martin and Nakayama, 2000), to describe abilities needed for intercultural interaction, one term emerges as perhaps the most comprehensive and most accurate – intercultural communicative competence (ICC).

Crossroads of Global and Local Identity in Contemporary Latvian Migrant Literature: Reflections on the Novel Stroika with a London View by W. B. Foreignerski (V. Lācītis)

This paper deals with the contemporary migration experience as seen through the subjective lens of a literary text. The analysis focuses on the novel Stroika with a London View by the Latvian diaspora writer William B. Foreignerski (Vilis Lācītis in the Latvian version). Foreignerski combines the portrayal of proletarians’ survival with entertaining and comical scenes from daily life. In the novel the story is told from the perspective of the narrator in the first person singular, thus the different relationships between the protagonist and the surrounding environment are already defined by this choice. In the novel the image of London is of great significance as a metropolis and multicultural city in which most of the events described in the novel occur. London is the key determinant for the poetics of intercultural literature in the novel – London can be a labyrinth, an initiation, a trap or a springboard. London as a city that can provide everything that life can offer gives one a chance not only to break away from the economic limitations at home but also from the ideological narrowness of the protagonist’s homeland as it is depicted in the novel. The start of the quest for a new life at the beginning of the novel is to a certain extent traumatic as it is characteristically in traditional emigrant literature. However, with the intercultural approach used by Foreignerski, the migration experience results in the freedom to accept new ideas and in gaining new horizons for the protagonist as well as for the reader.

Heimat und fragile Werte. Lavinia Braniştes Null Komma Irgendwas

Using the example of Lavinia Branişte’s novel Null Komma Irgendwas, the present article will explore the value of intercultural literature through a specific poetry. I will analyze with a close reading how questions of values as well as questions of apprehension of’ home’ are presented through a specific narrativ. I will draw paralells to Gottfried Keller´s Die drei gerechten Kammmacherandto Friedrich Nietzsche’s poem Vereinsamt.

BETWEEN THE OWN AND THE FOREIGN. MIGRATION EXPERIENCES IN MELINDA NADJ ABONJI’S AND IRENA BREŽNÁ’S NOVELS

Current developments in German-language literature show how much literature is shaped by social changes. In the past, Germanlanguage literature has repeatedly reported on waves of emigration and refugee movements, and that's what it does today. The refugee problem is therefore also in the literature a recurring theme. Contemporary authors from the German-speaking countries such as Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Feridun Zaimoğlu, Ilija Trojanow, Catalin Dorian Florescu or Abbas Khider, who experienced migration for a variety of reasons, are proof of this current trend. The Hungarian-Swiss author Melinda Nadj Abonji with her novel Tauben fliegen auf (2010) and the Slovak-Swiss author Irena Brežná with their most recent novel Die undankbare Fremde (2012) are also part of this trend. The own experiences of escape, foreignness and integration of the two authors, who make an important contribution to intercultural literature in Switzerland, characterize their work in a particularly emphatic manner and thus also repeatedly implicate a discussion of the autobiographical background. The paper intends to bring the culture contact into focus and thus to open the scientific discussion on two important literary texts of German-speaking Swiss contemporary literature and to examine how a migrant deals with the change of culture and how its identity is shaped by it. The construction of unfamiliar spaces, in which the identity unfolds between the adaptation to the prevailing norms and the resistance to a foreign language and cultural space, leads to the research objectives: to study the concepts of the own and foreign and to concretize intercultural aspects in both novels.