Migration and Its Discontents: Israelis in Berlin and Homeland Politics
Yael Almog Download PDF Abstract The essay discusses some ethnic and racial presumptions which subtend discussions of the recent Israeli migration to Germany, specifically the description of the Israeli presence in Berlin as signifying a “return” of Jews to Europe after the Holocaust. The essay argues that this description perpetuates the grounding of Zionism in […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 5 Summary (Sept. 28 & 30)
This last week in class, we discussed the idea of German collective memory and screened the film Almanya – Welcome to Germany. The week’s discussions started with how the term “melting pot” was used to describe US culture in the early 1900s. The picture found on the Wikipedia page for the term (The Melting Pot) […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 4 Summary (Sept. 21 & 23)
Who defines identity? Germany’s struggle with inclusivity. This last week in class, we discussed the limits of Germany’s capacity to take in immigrants and what it means to be German. Proponents of reducing the number of foreigners in Germany believe that the “boat” of Germany’s capacity for incorporation of foreigners is “full.” To these native-born […]
Multicultural Germany Course, Fall Semester 2015
This course addresses questions of mobility and borders in our increasingly connected and disjointed world. We will approach the history of post-World War II Germany through the lens of migration, reading a variety of texts critically and relating them to broader questions of economic and cultural globalization: the long term consequences of “guest worker” recruitment; […]
New Issue of TRANSIT
“TRANSIT: A Journal of Travel, Migration, and Multiculturalism in the German-speaking World” is pleased to announce the publication of the first installment of texts in the 2013-14 volume: an excerpted translation of Ali’s Kürk Mantolu Madonna (The Madonna in the Fur Coat, 1943) and selections from the exhibition on “Das neue Deutschland. Von Migration und Vielfalt” (The New […]
Multicultural Germany Class: “The Bridge of the Golden Horn”
This post is part of a series in which students reflect on their discussions in the UC Berkeley undergraduate seminar “Multicultural Germany.” This week’s summary is by Teddy Lee: The Bridge of the Golden Horn (original title: Die Brücke vom Goldenen Horn) by Emine Sevgi Özdamar is a novel that portrays a young immigrant’s perseverance to surpass her […]
Warum das Kind das Polenta kocht
English translation: Why the Child is Cooking the Polenta, translated by Vincent King, Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press , 2012. Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Ying Ruan: Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Romanian writer Aglaja Veteranyi in 1999. The narrator is an unnamed girl, who travels with […]
Multicultural Germany Class: Multiple Tongues
This post is part of a series in which students reflect on their discussions in the UC Berkeley undergraduate seminar “Multicultural Germany.” This week’s summary is by Jenelle Mathews: This week in class was a continuation of last week’s topic, Multiple Tongues – Multilingualism, Literature and Translation. As with previous weeks, our readings included articles from […]
Der Mensch ist ein grosser Fasan auf der Welt (The Passport)
English translation: The Passport, translated by Martin Chalmers, London: Serpent’s Tail, 1989 Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Preethi Kandhalu: The Passport is a novel by Herta Müller that was published in 1986; Müller was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. The novel was later translated into English by Serpent’s Tail – a […]
Transit
Written between 1941-42 while in Exile. First published in English, Spanish, and French in 1944; German original first published in the Berliner Zeitung in 1947. Newest English translation: Transit, translated by Margo Bettauer Dembo, New York: New York Review of Books, 2013. (Introduction by Peter Conrad, Afterword by Heinrich Böll) Book review by UC undergraduate Victoria Brinkerhoff: […]