German Jewish Literary Fiction since 1990: Re-imagining German Jewish Identities Transnationally and Globally

从1990年到2005年，大约20万能够证明犹太血统或陪同犹太亲戚的人被德国当局允许从苏联的继承国移民到联邦共和国。这一涌入极大地改变了德国现有的犹太社区，主要由老年人（主要是东欧大屠杀幸存者）及其子女和孙辈组成，以及从20世纪70年代起抵达的苏联反犹太主义难民。这个项目调查文学小说在德国的移民和非移民背景的自我认定的犹太作家，已经出现了与此同时，人口结构的转变。一小群成熟的作家加入了二十多位年轻的同事，不成比例的女性，他们体现了1990年后社区的多样性，大多数人都来自前苏联。他们的作品从表演艺术、单口喜剧、流行文学到托马斯曼或陀思妥耶夫斯基风格的“重量级”复杂小说，许多（但不是所有）年轻作家都融入了交叉性别或酷儿视角。几乎所有人都关注（德国）犹太人身份，复兴的反犹太主义和种族民族主义，并关注以下主题中的一个或多个：记忆，移民，“难民危机”，以及世界性参与的可能性。支持这本专著的研究将产生大约25位作者的文本的近距离阅读。它将1。探索历史，信仰和实践，女权主义和酷儿干预等的动态异质性，这是塑造90后社区的自我理解; 2.显示文本如何构建（德国）犹太人的身份跨国调用“犹太地理”，记忆和形式的流动性，纵横交错的边界;和3。探索至少一些德国犹太作家如何定义一种“犹太美学”，这种美学在全球范围内介入关于移民、散居和世界性团结的辩论。交叉的犹太人、性别、酷儿和其他“少数民族”身份将是一个交叉主题。此外，该项目将有一个比较的维度。我将与具有相关专业知识的博士后合作，探讨德国和美国的后苏联犹太作家是否以及如何为全球犹太文学做出贡献和/或同时在不同的散居地和民族文学中工作。领导一个国际网络来定义一个专注于这些作家的子领域将是该项目发展和参与活动的第一个组成部分。该研究将引起德国研究，犹太研究和俄罗斯研究的兴趣。它也将对散居研究的研究人员以及社会学家、政治学家、哲学家和其他对散居文化新形式感兴趣的学者有用（例如在线）、“少数民族”之间的团结以及世界主义的重新表达。在最一般的方面，该项目考察文学文本如何重新想象通过跨文化交流、旅行和数字技术维持的全球团结。同样，这些文本激发的人文学科研究通常赋予世界性行动和国际合作以积极的价值。然而，鉴于气候危机和大流行病，这项研究的进行方式是不可持续的。该项目的发展和参与活动的第二个组成部分是创建一个论坛，以巩固目前关于远程国际合作的讨论，并帮助就如何公平地进行这一合作达成共识。该研究将通过一本书、一篇文章、3篇论文、一个网站和社交媒体进行传播。正在根据疫情发展非学术影响的机会，例如与歌德学院和难民慈善机构合作，开展“讲述移民和流离失所”的活动。

From 1990 to 2005, around 200 000 people able to prove Jewish ancestry or accompanying a Jewish relative were permitted by the German authorities to immigrate to the Federal Republic from the successor states of the Soviet Union. This influx has dramatically transformed the existing Jewish community in Germany, largely consisting of elderly, mainly Eastern European Holocaust survivors, their children and grandchildren, and refugees from Soviet anti-Semitism who arrived from the 1970s onwards. This project investigates literary fiction in German by self-identified Jewish writers of migrant and non-migrant backgrounds that has emerged in parallel with this demographic transformation. A small cohort of established writers has been joined by twenty plus younger colleagues, disproportionately women, who embody the diversity of the post-1990 community, mostly with roots in the former Soviet Union. Their work ranges from performance art, stand-up comedy, and pop literature to 'weighty', complex novels in the style of Thomas Mann or Dostoevsky, and many (but not all) younger writers incorporate intersectional gender or queer perspectives. Almost all share a concern with (German) Jewish identity, resurgent anti-Semitism, and ethno-nationalism, and focus on one or often more of the following themes: memory, migration, 'refugee crises', and the possibilities of cosmopolitan engagement.I aim to write the first comprehensive account of this impressive corpus. The research that underpins this monograph will generate close readings of texts by around 25 authors. It will 1. explore the dynamic heterogeneity of histories, beliefs and practices, feminist and queer interventions, etc., that is shaping the self-understanding of the post-1990 community; 2. show how the texts construct (German) Jewish identity transnationally by invoking 'Jewish geographies', memories, and forms of mobility that criss-cross borders; and 3. explore how at least some German Jewish writers define a 'Jewish aesthetic' that intervenes globally in debates on migration, diaspora, and cosmopolitan solidarity. Intersectional Jewish, gender, queer and other 'minority' identities will be a cross-cutting theme.In addition, the project will have a comparative dimension. I will work with a postdoc with relevant expertise to explore whether and how post-Soviet Jewish authors in Germany and the USA contribute to a global Jewish literature and/or work simultaneously across different diasporic and national literatures. Leading an international network to define a sub-field focussed on such writers will be the first component of the project's development and engagement activities.The research will interest German Studies, Jewish Studies, and Russian Studies. It will also be of use to researchers in Diaspora Studies as well as sociologists, political scientists, philosophers, and other scholars interested in new forms of diasporic culture (e.g. online), solidarities between 'minorities', and re-articulations of cosmopolitanism.In the most general terms, the project examines how literary texts are re-imagining global solidarities sustained through intercultural exchange, travel, and digital technologies. Similarly, the Humanities research that such texts inspire typically assigns a positive value to cosmopolitan action and international collaboration. However, how this research is conducted is unsustainable, given the climate crisis and the pandemic. The second component of the project's development and engagement activities, then, is to create a forum to consolidate current discussions on remote international collaboration and to help to develop consensus for how this can be done equitably.The research will be disseminated via a book, an article, 3 papers, a website, and social media. Opportunities for non-academic impact are being developed subject to the pandemic, e.g. with the Goethe Institute and refugee charities on 'narrating migration and displacement'.