Cosmopolitical Claims: Turkish-German Literatures from Nadolny to Pamuk

by B. Venkat Mani

When both France and Holland rejected the proposed constitution for the European Union in 2005, the votes reflected popular anxieties about the entry of Turkey into the European Union as much as they did ambivalence over ceding national sovereignty. Indeed, the votes in France and Holland echoed long standing tensions between Europe and Turkey. If there was any question that tensions were high, the explosive reaction of Europe’s Muslim population to a series of cartoons of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper put them to rest. Cosmopolitical Claims is a profoundly original study of the works of Sten Nadonly, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Feridun Zaimoglu, and 2006 Nobel prize in literature recipient Orhan Pamuk. Rather than using the proverbial hyphen in “Turkish-German” to indicate a culture caught between two nations, Venkat Mani is interested in how Turkish-German literature engages in a scrutiny of German and Turkish national identity.
    Moving deftly from the theoretical literature to the texts themselves, Mani’s groundbreaking study explores these conflicts and dialogues and the resulting cultural hybridization as they are expressed in four novels that document the complexity of Turkish-German cultural interactions in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. His innovative readings will engage students of contemporary German literature as well as illuminate the discussion of minority literature in a multicultural setting.
    As Salman Rushdie said in the 2002 Tanner Lecture at Yale, “The frontier is an elusive line, visible and invisible, physical and metaphorical, amoral and moral. . . . To cross a frontier is to be transformed.” It is in this vein that Mani’s dynamic and subtle work posits a still evolving discourse between Turkish and German writers.

262 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book represents one of perhaps two or three English-language analysis of Turkish-German literature in book form, accompanied only by John Cheesman's Novels of Turkish German Settlement: Cosmopolite Fictions. Within, B. Venkat Mani presents four thorough readings of cosmopolitical texts (mostly written by Turks or Turkish-Germans, but not entirely). However, one must slog through an incredibly dense (43 pages!) introduction that lays out the author's theoretical frameworks and considerations. I found this intimidating, but was relieved to find a thread to hold onto upon reaching the first chapter. Venkat Mani examines Sten Nadolny's Selim oder Die Gabe der Rede, Emine Sevgi Özdamar's Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde, Ferdinun Zaimoğlu's Abschaum, and finally Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk's The New Life.

Throughout the analysis of all the texts the author maintains a deep involvement with the works of the titans of post-colonial theory. As such, I feel that readers would benefit from a forehand familiarity with these works; however, I found that Venkat Mani provided just enough context and paraphrase to allow me to keep up with his arguments. Nevertheless, I've accumulated a reading list of over 30 books/articles from the author's mentions alone.

A Goodreads review is not the proper venue for more nuanced analysis and critique, so I'll just add that the afterword was a very pleasant contrast to my experience with the book's hefty introduction: so much so, that I wish that the two could be swapped out! This book is absolutely the go-to (by virtue of availability and merit) for individuals looking for an analysis of German-Turkish literary production that escapes the gravitational pull of the finger-poking of essentialized "difference" that is so commonly considered "multicultural analysis". Certainly not a breeze to read, but a very rewarding and enlightening experience.