German as a 'Magic Wand': the critique of and reflection on language as a form of remembering in Katja Petrowskaja's novel Maybe Esther (2014) Cover Image

„Wünschelrute“ Deutsch: Über Sprachkritik und Sprachreflexion als Modi der Erinnerungshandlungen in Katja Petrowskajas Vielleicht Esther (2014)
German as a 'Magic Wand': the critique of and reflection on language as a form of remembering in Katja Petrowskaja's novel Maybe Esther (2014)

Author(s): Anna Rutka
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: Katja Petrowskaja Vielleicht Esther; contemporary German-speaking novel; post-Shoah-generation; translinguality; modification of memory acts

Summary/Abstract: Maybe Esther, the debut novel by the German-speaking Ukrainian-Jewish novelist Katja Petrowskaja, problematises the processes of memory and identity construction against the background of multiand translingualism. The present article analyses the role played by the German language for the Ukrainian-Jewish-Russian survivors of the Holocaust and for their offspring. Likewise, it discusses the ramifications of writing in a foreign – in this case, German – language, and the resulting modifications of the processes of remembering.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 25
  • Page Range: 85-99
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: German