Novels of Turkish German Settlement: Cosmopolite Fictions

Germany has become home to some 2.5 million people of Turkish background since mass recruitments in the 1960s and 1970s to man the "economic miracle." An increasingly settled Turkish German population now asserts a permanent place in Germany: over a third were born there, and a third have German citizenship. At the same time, Turkish German writers have become integral to the German literary scene. They include bestselling novelists Renan Demirkan and Akif PirinAci; prestigious literary prize-winners Emine Sevgi Azdamar and Feridun Zaimoglu; and the critically acclaimed Aras Aren and Zafer Senocak. Tom Cheesman focuses on these and other writers' perspectives on cosmopolitan ideals and aspirations, ranging from glib affirmation to cynical transgression and melancholy nihilism. People of Turkish background are still not always recognized as equal participants in German life, but Turkish German writers' interventions defy marginalizing concepts such as "literature of migration" or "intercultural literature." What Cheesman calls their "literature of settlement" is paradigmatic for European cultures adapting to diversity and negotiating new identities. He shows German culture to have moved decisively beyond such "polite fictions" as the term "guest worker" or the slogan "not a country of immigration." Tom Cheesman is Senior Lecturer in German at Swansea University, Wales.