„Wünschelrute“ Deutsch: Über Sprachkritik und Sprachreflexion als Modi der Erinnerungshandlungen in Katja Petrowskajas „Vielleicht Esther“ (2014)

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 multi- and 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.

Keywords

• translinguality
• modification of memory acts
• post-Shoah-generation
• contemporary German-speaking novel
• Katja Petrowskaja Vielleicht Esther