Reading and Writing the Child's Voice in Emine Sevgi zdamar's Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei hat zwei Tren aus einer kam ich rein aus der anderen ging ich raus (1992)

Author： Maguire Nora

Publisher： Oxford University Press

ISSN： 1471-6860

Source： Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol.49, Iss.2, 2013-04, pp. : 213-220

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Abstract

Reading and writing the child's voice in literature of migration are politically charged processes. Unexamined cultural assumptions about childhood are easily imported into the interpretive process. As the cultural construct of childhood is closely tied in with notions of whole subjectivity and identity, as well as with a binary adult/child hierarchy, these assumptions can distort critical responses to texts of migration, allowing orientalizing tendencies to creep into the analysis. Focusing on Emine Sevigi Özdamar's Karawanserei novel, this article explores the pitfalls of reading the child's voice in the context of Turkish-German writing, and suggests an alternative critical approach to Özdamar's writing of childhood.