Enduring Empires: History, Trauma and Identity in Recent German Writing from Central and Eastern Europe

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Enduring Empires' examines selected German-language fiction since 1980 by writers born after 1940 from, or whose parents were from, central and eastern European countries other than the former East Germany, that is: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Russia. These writers include both ethnic Germans and others who have migrated to Germany, Austria and Switzerland since the Second World War, and especially since the fall of communism. In comparison to Turkish-German, Jewish-German and east German literature, which have all received much critical attention, German writing from central and eastern Europe (henceforth: GWCEE) is relatively neglected. This pioneering project seeks to make good that deficiency. For GWCEE has made not only a distinguished but also a distinctive contribution to German literature. The works of these authors, many of whom are prize winners, have been well received by the media and the reading public. Their distinctiveness can be traced to the shared history of the region in which the imperial ambitions of successive empires (Habsburg, Nazi, Soviet, global capital) have been, and continue to be, played out. The texts concerned thematise domination, 'Heimat' (homeland), thwarted aspirations to national self-determination, trauma, violence, migration, multi-ethnicism, multilingualism, and the relations between Germany and Austria and their eastern neighbours. They catalogue historical change, both the bewilderingly fast change of the post-Cold-War era, and the stagnation of late-stage communism as it ground inevitably towards its end. They bear witness to the sufferings of those who did not survive past horrors. They also tell of sometimes painful, sometimes joyful negotiations of hybrid identities in the turbulent 1990s and the new millennium. Above all, they explore the enduring effects of empires on the identities of the peoples subjected to them.'Enduring Empires' will result in four outputs: three articles in peer-reviewed journals, and a web-based bibliography. Output 1, entitled ''Heimat' as Palimpsest: Bearing Witness in Recent Novels in German from Central and Eastern Europe', interprets the 'enduring' of the project title in the sense of 'putting up with wrongs'. It examines fiction set during communist rule which unsettles cosy ideas of 'Heimat' (homeland) and which testifies to the trauma of totalitarianism. Output 2, entitled 'The Alien Gaze: The Moment of Migration in Recent Writing in German from Central and Eastern Europe', examines novels of arrival in Germany, Austria and Switzerland of immigrants from the eastern bloc which present an uncomfortable image of life in the West. It explores how these texts pose a challenge to the host literatures. Output 3, entitled 'Enduring Empires: The Search for Identity in the New Europe', stresses the other sense of 'enduring', meaning 'lasting'. It shows, as does the project as a whole, how identities in Europe today are still affected by the successive empires which have asserted hegemony in the region, even as they celebrate the freedoms of postmodernity. Output 4, a simple listing of writers and their works, will be an invaluable tool for other researchers.The author will draw on her considerable experience in the field. Her work will combine archival research with author interviews and close readings of texts, and will be widely disseminated through conferences and peer-reviewed journals. The ground-breaking project will bring into sharp focus a new and exciting subset of contemporary German and European literature. It will open up a new perspective on German debates about its past, about Germany and Austria's relations with their minority communities, and about their place in the world. The resulting publications will appeal to scholars in German Studies, Central and Eastern European Studies, Border Studies, andto anyone with an interest in post-communism and contemporary European literature.