The perception of strangeness through the migration literature

Abstract

With Jenny Erpenbeck's novel Go, Went, Gone, we will share a reading experience that brought up issues such as migration, loss of home, strangeness, and ethical writing. The author narratively confronts the reader with the current situation of refugees in Germany and shows an intercultural encounter between people who come closer together and get to know each other despite strangeness and otherness. In this context, we would like to mention a multi-faceted perception of the reader which includes a willingness to reflect on and learn about the relationships of the stranger and oneself.Therefore, we offer a pedagogical role of migration literature here which ultimately leads to a self-reflection, if it deals critically with both the cultural stranger and with his own strangeness. The reader is thus challenged in many ways to a change of perspective: This literary work of migration makes the reader aware of the painful experiences of the refugees and the reasons for their flight. On the other hand,the reader accompanies Richard, the mediating character between the culture of the refugees and the new one who in turn faces the past itself throughout the twentieth century, marked by the German separation and reunification which leads him to reflect on its own identity. This kind of novel lends itself to offer and discuss a didactic perspective on certain demands of transcultural literary didactics.