Three Metaphors of Exile in the Modern German Novel: Gehen, ging, gegangen by Jenny Erpenbeck, Ohrfeige by Abbas Khider, Das Mädchen mit dem Fingerhut by Michael Köhlmeier

Abstract

The paper is divided into three parts. In the first one the most popular contexts of the research of the migrant literature are named: the actual debate about consequences of migrant policy and the figure of the author. In the second part three central metaphors in the novels of Erpenbeck, Khider and Köhlmeier are presented. These metaphors of exile are: disturbed time, lost life story, incomprehensible language. The third part contains an overview of the reception of the novels in Germany. The conventions of reading focus first of all on the two aforementioned non-fictional references (political context and author) without taking the metaphorical power of the texts into account. Thus the new migrant literature tends to become an equivalent for journalism and is read literally as a testimony of the author.