New Black Literature as a Field of German Studies – Reflections on Theorization and Didactization in Universities in the Context of Decolonization

Abstract

Not only the university as an institution, but also the discipline of German Studies generally represents a white literary and cultural history in which the stories and artistic products of BPoC actors are only marginally the subject of teaching. In the last ten years, however, BPoC have increasingly made themselves heard again and have brought their perspectives into the literary world or into educational discourses, for example. Literary texts address everyday racism, Othering, and (German) colonial history, but also focus on other topics such as family, love relationships, or GDR history. What they have in common is that they tell of Germany as a Black ‘homeland’. These universal literary themes and their aesthetic representation are often neglected when it comes to literature by BPoC. Instead, they are readily addressed as merely representative of the representation of racism or slavery in seminars. Thus, while on the one hand it is important to bring perspectives from BPoC into teaching in the sense of racism critics, on the other hand it is equally significant not to functionalize them sporadically and exclusively for the thematization of racism.

Due to the ambivalences outlined, the article considers how the texts can be integrated into German Studies seminars without reproducing categorizations or reducing them to experiences of racism, while nevertheless also making Black perspectives visible and taking them seriously. These considerations will be embedded in fundamental reflections on the decolonization of the institution university and Eurocentric knowledge transfer. These questions will be discussed using the novels Adas Raum by SHARON DODUA OTOO, Brüder by JACKIE THOMAE and 1000 serpentinen angst by OLIVIA WENZEL as examples.