The Eastern Turn in Contemporary German, Swiss and Austrian Literature 1

摘要

This paper notes that recent fiction in German by writers from eastern Europe and former Yugoslavia constitutes a new wave of migrant writing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It suggests a provisional unity to these texts based on the snapshot they provide of late-stage communism and the post-communist transformation of eastern and western Europe, focusing on five common scenarios. Yet the considerable areas of overlap with trends in other German-language literatures indicate that this literature cannot be labelled “marginal”. Rather this emerging field is transforming German literatures from within and contributing to a post-Cold War remapping of Europe.