Der andere Ort des Erzahlens: Exil und Utopie in der Literatur deutscher Emigrantinnen und Emigranten 1933-1945

Exile as the experience of total loss, uprooting and dislocation has become a topos. Especially in German exile between 1933 and 1945, traditions and security were lost and people became homeless and lonely. It is therefore no coincidence that the exile is repeatedly used as a metaphor for the modern poet. The novels from this period show that the specific narration in exile has given rise to a new utopian discourse. Such a paradigm shift has generally only been noted after 1945. But it is precisely the placelessness and homelessness of the experience of exile that finds its fleeting other place, the utopian non-place, in the narration itself. The novels Transit by Anna Seghers, Child of All Countries by Irmgard Keun, Der Umbruch Or Hanna and Freedom by Alice Ruhle-Gerstel, Der Vulkan by Klaus Mann and Exil by Lion Feuchtwanger have so far been received mainly biographically or morally in the light of coming to terms with the past. The novels are re-read here, which shows that exile literature is not generally to be assigned to anti-modern traditionalism, but rather also contains signs of modernity.