Monatshefte

Postcolonial approaches might have entered Germanistik somewhat belatedly in comparison to other fields, but for more than a decade now, they have been gaining more and more importance in the discipline. This volume is part of a project to expand and systematize the contributions that postcolonial studies have made within Germanistik, i.e., the DFG-sponsored network “Postkoloniale Studien in der Germanistik,” which was founded by Gabriele Dürbeck and Axel Dunker and operated from 2008 to 2011. The network project sought to collect and consolidate individual approaches and research projects, to employ them for a reconfiguration and expansion of the field, and thus also to establish postcolonial studies within the institution(s) of Germanistik. The edited series of the same title, which so far comprises eight books, is part of this effort, and this particular volume (as well as other books in the series) compiles research completed by network members during the duration of the project.

The volume consists of eleven contributions, which are divided into two parts: the first section, “Bestandsaufnahmen und theoretische Perspektiven,” sketches the development of postcolonial studies in Germanistik so far and lays out current topics and possible future lines of inquiry, thus providing the framework for the more extensive second part, which contains analyses and (re-)readings of texts of colonial, post-, and neo-colonial relevance, as well as critical examinations of existing post-colonial treatises. [End Page 529]

Gabriele Dürbeck’s contribution provides a historical overview of German post-colonial studies in the past 15 years, including aspects such as the influence of Anglo-American theories or the cultural turn, and a literature survey. While some of this has been done in many a postcolonial anthology, Dürbeck’s survey distinguishes itself by differentiating individual methodological approaches and focusing on some key points, such as the relevance of transnationalism and the intersection with other fields, e.g., intercultural (German) studies. While the author attests to postcolonial Germanistik’s increasing diversity, globalization, and emancipation from merely absorbing outside theories, she also points to diverse areas for potential growth, from a need for further (re-)readings of seminal texts from a postcolonial perspective to exploring continuities with related issues (e.g., the Holocaust), and advancing connections with ecocriticism.

Alexander Honold’s contribution exemplifies one such area of growth by suggesting a link between intercultural and postcolonial studies for further productive inquiry. Putting forward the concept of a connection between written discourse systems and historical colonialism, he theorizes a “Poetik des Fremden” (71) which draws on participatory observation in combination with a critical reconstruction of colonial history for a model of intercultural perception and analysis, particularly in texts from contact zones. In a similar attempt at broadening the scope of postcolonial Germanistik, Sven Werkmeister proposes a focus on media-reflexive considerations—or, as he calls it, an ethnological turn, in cultural studies—for a better understanding of the subtleties of (post)colonial texts.

The following section offers a broad variety of impressive studies illustrating the increasing diversity within postcolonial Germanistik, including its extension into postcolonial ecocriticism (Sabine Wilke), a transfer of the colonial concept to Eastern Europe and its internal others, i.e., Jews and ‘gypsies’ (Iulia-Karin Patrut), and the inclusion of concepts from narratology and discourse analysis for a postcolonial reading of Wolfgang Herrndorf’s enigmatic novel Sand (Maximilian Burk / Christof Hamann). Oliver Lubrich’s interpretation of the perplexing structure of Alexander von Humboldt’s Kosmos as replication of colonialism’s confusing and criticized structure is as insightful as Axel Dunker’s interpretations of various twentieth-century texts that he performs with as well as against Edward Said’s concept of contrapuntal reading.

The section of interpretations concludes with a thematic cluster on German colonial fantasies of Africa. Dirk Göttsche examines recent historical novels about Africa, asserting a tendency towards re-mythicization of the colonial past which, however, is often successfully overcome in texts that employ postmodern narrative strategies, such as metadiscursivity or dialogical structure. According to Göttsche such an approach contributes to a more reflexive distancing from colonial nostalgia. Monika Albrecht questions colonial fantasies further, taking issue with the concept as a collective phenomenon and arguing that their prominence in recent TV productions and novels cannot, as one might assume, be read as a general “Normalisierung des kolonialen Blicks” (423) but rather, that the critical perspective might be lost in this process. She analyzes and presents Alex Capus’s Eine Frage der Zeit as a successful counter-image to this loss of a critical view on colonialism. Hansjörg Bay and Wolfgang Struck follow these considerations with an extensive survey of manifestations of postcolonial desire—and with it, a desire for hybridity—in a broad range of German mainstream texts and films about Africa. The authors examine the ambiguities of [End Page 530] exotic fascination, neocolonial appropriation, and postcolonial criticism, uncovering a transformation of colonial ideas into postcolonial structures over time that assist in the construction and control of a postcolonial—sometimes internal—other.

The volume contains a bibliography covering postcolonial studies within Germanistik. One might question its selection and usefulness, for instance, when it comes to the issue of which individual German-speaking authors should or should not be included on this list. In addition, given the ephemerality of bibliographies in the digital age, this list can—despite its extensiveness—only serve as point of departure for further research and might soon appear outdated.

An innovative twist in regards to the contributors’ biographies should be mentioned as well; they actually keep biographical information to a minimum and instead contain individual self-positionings within the field, including, for instance, information about preferred research methods and theories, specific subfields of research, interdisciplinary interests, or text corpora—certainly a useful way of clarifying their points of departure for the reader even further.

This compilation of an introductory survey, two theoretical pieces, and a number of interpretations and practical applications from various perspectives might seem somewhat eclectic—a fact that is certainly due to the origin of this project. Nevertheless, despite or rather precisely because of this broad range of approaches and texts covered in the individual contributions, the anthology provides an excellent overview of current topics within postcolonial Germanistik for anyone wishing to gain an introduction into this subject as well as for those interested to learn how German(istik) approaches distinguish themselves from—or occasionally correspond to—those pursued, for instance, in the Anglo-American context. All contributors lay out their often transnational and interdisciplinary theoretical influences while at the same time clearly expounding the specific German aspects of their individual projects which, in the end, forms the unifying aspect for all articles. The volume’s distinct contribution lies in its presentation of diverse cogent studies that also identify gaps in the current state of research and therefore invite further inquiry into interdisciplinary German postcolonialism.