Die Scham der Einwanderer. Facetten einer schmerzvollen Emotion in der deutschen Migrationsliteratur mit polnischem Hintergrund

Abstract

Shame is an omnipresent, yet difficult to study emotion that is reluctantly experienced and often tabooed. The analysis of the selected works by German authors of Polish origin, Adam Soboczynski, Alice Bota, Alexandra Tobor and Emilia Smechowski, allows one to conclude that the socially and culturally shaped feeling of shame is presented there as an existential experience in the migration process. Against the backdrop of resettler emigration from Poland to Germany in the 1980s, the texts show moments of self-reflection by literary figures before an internalised alien observer whose system of norms and values they at least partially recognise. The literary representation of shame includes the representation of manifold causes of shame (stigmatising origin, social position, violation of norms) as well as short- and long-term effects of the experienced degradation on the migrants’ self-image and behaviour.

Keywords

• shame
• migration
• emigration from Poland to the FRG
• German-Polish literature