ERZÄHLTE HOFFNUNG: MIGRATION, KINDHEIT UND DIE SUCHE NACH DEM PARADIES IN KARIN GÜNDISCHS DAS PARADIES LIEGT IN AMERIKA
NARRATED HOPE: MIGRATION, CHILDHOOD AND THE SEARCH FOR PARADISE IN KARIN GÜNDISCH’S DAS PARADIES LIEGT IN AMERIKA

Summary/Abstract: This article examines Karin Gündisch’s novel "Das Paradies liegt in Amerika" (english translation by James Skofield - How I became an American, 2001) from a narratological and anthropological perspective. The focus is on the child narrator, through whose perspective migration is revealed as a process of experience, memory, and meaning-making. Drawing on the concepts of cultural memory (Jan and Aleida Assmann), rites of passage (van Gennep, Turner), and utopian hope (Bloch, Ricoeur), the paper demonstrates how Gündisch transforms migration into a narrative movement of hope. The “paradise” of the original title is not a geographical location but a narrative metaphor for cultural self-affirmation and future orientation. Storytelling thus becomes an anthropological practice in which memory, loss, and hope are woven into a poetic unity.

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