Traces Leading to Pontus and the Bosporus: The Ottoman Genocide in German Language (Post) Migrant Prose

Abstract

This literary analysis examines the representation of the Ottoman genocide against Armenians and Greeks in contemporary German prose using four examples of family narratives and travel texts, respectively. Two of the authors analyzed – Katerina Poladyan and Laura Cwiertnia – represent fictional prose, while Mirko Heinemann and Michael Asderis represent factual prose. Written three to four generations after the Ottoman genocide, all four authors ask themselves what the events of that time mean for the descendants of survivors: a burden or a legacy obligatory to preserve or remember? At the same time, genre hybridity as a characteristic of post-genocidal or post-migrant German prose is analyzed.