EUME Lecture
Mi. 24 Feb. 2016 | 15:00–16:30

Turkish Labor Migration to Germany: Political Discourses, Historic Documentation and Aesthetic Interventions

Ela Gezen (University of Massachusetts Amherst / EUME Fellow 2015/2016)

Forum Transregionale Studien, Wallotstr. 14, 14193 Berlin

In July 1973, the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel warned, “The Turks are coming — save yourself, if you can!” In the cover story, Turkish immigration was described in pejoratives, as a “rush from the Bosporus,” an “invasion” by “flocks,” and a “Turk-run on the cities.” The rhetorical choices in this article make clear that Turkish immigration was to be construed as disconcerting at best, and, at worst, as alarming. This mirrored a general trend in German public discourse at the time. In the face of growing discrimination and the West German consolidation policy, an attempt to limit immigration, Turkish-German intellectuals, writers, and musicians have used their work to “document” the experience of Turkish immigrants and guestworkers, representing people of Turkish descent as an undeniably permanent presence in Germany, and as subjects (not passive objects) in German discourses on memory, history, and culture. In her talk, Gezen will focus on the intersection of public-political discourses and cultural production in the context of Turkish immigration to Germany, particularly during the 1970s.

"Die Türken kommen - rette sich, wer kann", in: Der Spiegel 31/1973.

Ela Gezen studied American Studies and Turkish Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and Indiana University. She received her PhD in German Studies from the University of Michigan. Since 2012 she has been Assistant Professor of German at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research and teaching focus on 20th century German and Turkish literature and culture, with emphases on literatures of migration, minority discourses, historical and theoretical accounts of transnationalism, and literary and cultural theory.

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