John Slattery

 While traditional, exclusionary concepts of Heimat (home; homeland; belonging) remain relevant in the post-1989 German public sphere, my dissertation demonstrates that certain contemporary German novels envision a more inclusive, intercultural idea of home. Until now, the vast majority of work that has productively scrutinized conservative beliefs associated with the term Heimat has often condemned without acknowledging the human need for a sense of community. My dissertation is critical of Heimat’s conventional imaginary against perceived Others, but transcends the Heimat/Anti-Heimat binary by analyzing literary instances of a multicultural, social sense of refuge. I contrast these examples of intercultural utopia featuring open belonging with enclosures in present-day society such as gated communities that perpetuate solipsism and isolation. The instances I analyze of both inclusive and exclusionary conceptions of home stem primarily from four novels published between 2000 and 2015. My project shows how post-1989 physical barriers prolong exclusionary sentiments of the right, and how the Berlin Wall conveyed certain pre-1989 illusory notions by the left of insulation from global capitalism. Hence, I illustrate that Othering by creating a pretense of separation alienates relations between geographically constructed social groups.

Building upon scholarly geocritical conversations, my project helps to denaturalize the culturally hegemonic artifice of separate places by reviving pre-1989 leftist ideas of international solidarity, while disapproving of separators from both the left and the right. Highlighting the fluid lines of belonging featured in four exemplary literary works, my project rethinks Heimat from a critical, yet hopeful perspective. Moving beyond antagonistic dichotomies of good vs. evil and victim vs. perpetrator, these literary examples show how acknowledgment of another’s unique challenges can interpersonally establish collective responsibility. In analyzing these illustrations of a radically new cross-cultural, intersubjective concept of open inclusion, my project provides insight toward establishing more all-embracing notions of home.