Magical realism and Polish-German postmemory: Reimagining flight and expulsion in Sabrina Janesch’s "Katzenberge" (2010)

Abstract

In the course of the last decade, flight and expulsion in the eastern part of Central Europe have increasingly become a topic in contemporary German literature by young authors. Part of this trend is the search for narrative modes which may open different perspectives on places and historic dates which have tended to be absorbed in national historical narratives and their political contexts. A brief overview of the development of Heimatliteratur and examples of Polish borderland writing after 1989 will provide the background for an analysis of Sabrina Janesch’s novel Katzenberge (2010), which aims to address the following questions: How can magical realism provide a transgenerational narrative framework for third-generation authors and readers to witness and empathise with the traumatic experience of the first generation? In how far is history turned into myth by this mode of writing?