Foreword by the Managing Editor
It is my privilege to present the second issue of the fourteenth volume of TRANSIT Journal, now celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its conceptualization by founding members, Deniz Göktürk and Anton Kaes, of the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of German. The first issue grew out of an international conference titled “Goodbye, Germany? Migration, Culture, and the Nation-State,” which was held at the University of California, Berkeley, October 28-30, 2004. TRANSIT Journal was also inaugurated in synergy with an ongoing research hub on “Multicultural Germany,” which has found expression on digital platforms such as TRANSIT Blog (formerly the Multicultural Germany Project) and the sourcebook publication Germany in Transit. Nation and Migration, 1955-2005 (University of California Press, 2006), which charts 50 years of debates on migration, human rights, multiculturalism, and citizenship that continue to be relevant in the contemporary.
A trip back through TRANSIT’s digital archive reveals how cultural debates on migration within and beyond Germany continue to reignite old conversations and reopen old wounds. There is a wearying déjà vu in reading the first Foreword, a sense that no matter our shock at the rise of right-wing movements and deadly border conflicts, they have been there all along, but now emboldened by new strongmen and empowered by new technologies. In January of 2005, amidst the excitement generated by TRANSIT’s inception, a long-debated immigration law took effect in Germany, acknowledging for the first time that the country “ha[d] indeed become a country of immigration, even if against its will” (Göktürk & Kaes, Foreword). While the law finally entitled those born on German soil to citizenship, “[o]n the other hand, just like everywhere else, legislation on immigration also seeks to crack down on illegal immigration, limit the number of people entering the country, and facilitate the deportation of asylum seekers” (Göktürk & Kaes, Foreword). Twenty years later, we continue to see heated debates on tightening immigration and refugee laws, with proposals to reject asylum seekers at the border.
This issue includes two feature articles and a selection of translations, all of which further question and interrogate the construction of borders and borderlands, both in their physical and psychological forms. How does the migrant subject navigate their own experiences of estrangement and the racialized constructions enacted by others? How does such an ambivalence find expression in the creative arts? How do filmic, digital, and AI-generated remediations of precarious subjectivities expand our understanding of multilingualism and creative self-expression?
In our first feature article, “With whose blood were my eyes crafted?” Critical Concepts of Seeing, Knowing, and Remembering in Philip Scheffner’s and Merle Kröger’s Havarie (2016),” Roy Grundmann focuses on the experimental non-fiction film Havarie (dir. Philip Scheffner), which extends a brief amateur cell phone video into a 90-minute meditation on the uneasy relationship between the mediatized refugee figure and the white, European gaze. Focusing specifically on the mid-film pan, Grundmann argues that this particular, as-of-yet unexplored filmic segment activates the mnemonic facilities of the viewer, encouraging them to understand the histories of migration from a multidirectional standpoint; through shared themes of forced movement, erasure, and renewal, Havarie recalls disparate histories of migration: Middle Passage, contemporary Mediterranean crossings, and the Jewish refugee ships of WWII.
In “Narratives and Counternarratives of German Borderscapes in Olivia Wenzel’s 1000 Serpentinen Angst,” Dora Rusciano analyzes Olivia Wenzel’s acclaimed novel of the title (2020) through the heuristics of borderscapes and bordering processes, arguing that such socio-cultural dynamics serve as useful frameworks for understanding counter-politics and counter-narratives. Focusing on the protagonist’s affective employment of fear to draw protective boundaries between herself and others, Rusciano also argues that Wenzel’s auto-fictional novel goes beyond evoking empathy in readers. Rather, through experimental style, Wenzel prompts a deeper understanding of the underlying narratives that continue to uphold racial discrimination.
This issue, I am also particularly excited to present a collection of creative translations that pave new grounds for discussions on the borders and borderlands of identity, migration, and language. Kelsi Morefield, in her translation of Nava Ebrahimi’s Bachmann prize-winning short story, “The Cousin”, presents a playful unraveling of the performed self, especially as it affects the migrant artist, skillfully negotiating between the borderlands of home. A critical reflection follows this layered story. “A Second Attack”, which is an excerpt from the bestselling book, Geboren, aufgewachsen, und ermordet in Deutschland (2024), co-written by Cetin Gültekin and Mutlu Koçak, offers a harrowing reflection on the aftermath of the 2020 Hanau terror attacks. A translator’s preface accompanies this excerpt.
We end with two translations that raise new questions about the borderlands of writing translation, and creation. In her translator’s introduction–“Liebe zum Wort ist immer Unbescheidenheit”–to Irmgard Keun’s 13-poem anthology titled Songs of the Refugees, Anna Lynn Dolman contemplates the border-crossing practices of translation. In her translator’s introduction–“Litterae ex Machina: AI Going Down the Rabbit Hole”–Kayla Rose van Kooten deliberates the strangeness of translating Hannes Bajohr’s AI-generated text, “I was received by the city as I stepped into the world again.” I invite you to step into this surreal world, a world you may find–to quote from the story itself–“enchanting, but unnatural.” A translated commentary, ““Cohesion Without Coherence: Artificial Intelligence and Narrative Form,” follows the story.
I would like to thank the contributors to this issue for their cooperation, dedication, and enthusiasm throughout the editorial process. Thank you to this year’s editorial team, whose critical feedback, time, and labor are indispensable to the operations of this Journal; and to our concept coordinator, Deniz Göktürk, for her continuous support, ideas, and encouragement. Many thanks are also due to Hannes Bajohr and especially Kayla van Kooten for their dedication to completely refurbishing the layout and design for this issue’s articles. To view these new layouts, please click on the PDF versions of the articles.
Serving as Managing Editor of TRANSIT Journal over the past few years has been a great honor and privilege. I am excited for the new directions this journal will take under the management of Ambika Athreya and Kayla Rose van Kooten, especially as we prepare for the Journal’s 20th anniversary issue. We continue to invite rolling submissions for literary translations, scholarly articles, and multimedia projects.
As always, we look forward to future collaborations and exchange.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Sun
Managing Editor