Migration Experiences in Selected Works by Stanislav Struhar

Abstract

Stanislav Struhar, nowadays one of the most productive contemporary Austrian authors, has published 12 works so far. The main themes of his works include the integration of a migrant who loses and finds his home, the associated language change, the search for happiness in the new home or the conscious rejection of the traumatic past. This also corresponds to the fact that the main characters in almost all of his prosaic works are migrants or their descendants. Stanislav Struhar also shows that love and language are of particular importance for the integration of migrants into the foreign milieu. The article analyzes the ambivalent character of migration experiences and the positioning of migrants in foreign society using the example of the novels Das Manuskript (2002), Eine Suche nach Glück (2005) and the volume of short stories Fremde Frauen (2013). In the first work the main characters are confronted with physical violence, in other two works it is more about the migrants’ feelings of foreignness, stereotypes and prejudices, with which they are confronted. In this context, the attitude of the protagonists towards the language, both the foreign language and their mother tongue, should also be emphasized.

Keywords

• austrian literature
• foreignness
• integration
• language
• migration
• migration experiences
• migrant literature
• novel
• stanislav struhar
• stereotypes