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

《不朽的帝国》审查了1980年以来的德语小说，作者是1940年以后出生的作家，或其父母来自前东德德国以外的中欧和东欧国家，即捷克共和国、匈牙利、波兰、罗马尼亚、斯洛伐克和俄罗斯。这些作家既包括德意志人，也包括自第二次世界大战以来，特别是自共产主义垮台以来移居德国、奥地利和瑞士的其他人。与土耳其-德国、犹太-德国和东德文学相比，这些文学都受到了批评界的关注，中欧和东欧的德语写作（以下简称GWCEE）相对被忽视。这个开创性的项目旨在弥补这一不足。因为GWCEE不仅对德国文学做出了杰出的贡献，而且也做出了独特的贡献。这些作家的作品受到媒体和阅读大众的好评，其中许多人是获奖者。它们的独特性可以追溯到该地区的共同历史，在这一历史中，历代帝国（哈布斯堡、纳粹、苏联、全球资本）的帝国野心已经并将继续发挥作用。这些文本涉及主题统治、“Heimat”（家园）、民族自决愿望的挫败、创伤、暴力、移民、多民族主义、多语言主义以及德国和奥地利与其东部邻国之间的关系。他们记录了历史的变化，既有冷战后令人眼花缭乱的快速变化，也有共产主义后期不可避免地走向终结时的停滞。他们见证了那些在过去的恐怖中没有幸存下来的人的痛苦。他们还讲述了在动荡的20世纪90年代和新千年里，关于混合身份的谈判有时痛苦，有时快乐。最重要的是，他们探索了帝国对受其统治的人民的身份的持久影响。《不朽的帝国》将产生四项产出：同行评审期刊上的三篇文章和一份网络参考书目。产出1题为“作为Palimpaly的”Heimat“：在中欧和东欧最近的德语小说中作证”，从“容忍错误”的意义上解释了项目标题的“持久”。它考察了在共产主义统治期间的小说，这些小说动摇了“Heimat”（祖国）的舒适观念，并证明了极权主义的创伤。产出2题为“外国人的凝视：近期中欧和东欧德语写作中的移民时刻”，考察了来自东欧集团的移民抵达德国、奥地利和瑞士的小说，这些小说呈现了一种令人不安的西方生活形象。探讨这些文本如何对宿主文学构成挑战。产出3题为《持久的帝国：在新欧洲寻找身份认同》，强调了“持久”的另一种含义，即“持久”。正如整个项目一样，它显示了今天欧洲的身份仍然受到在该地区确立霸权的连续帝国的影响，即使他们庆祝后现代性的自由。产出4是一份作家及其作品的简单清单，对其他研究人员来说将是一个宝贵的工具，作者将利用她在该领域的丰富经验。她的工作将结合联合收割机档案研究与作者访谈和文本的近距离阅读，并将通过会议和同行评议的期刊广泛传播。这个开创性的项目将使当代德国和欧洲文学的一个新的、令人兴奋的子集成为焦点。它将为德国关于其过去、德国和奥地利与其少数民族社区的关系以及他们在世界上的地位的辩论开辟一个新的视角。由此产生的出版物将吸引德国研究，中欧和东欧研究，边境研究的学者，以及任何对后共产主义和当代欧洲文学感兴趣的人。

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.