Guest Worker Literature

Author: Katie Petersen

PhD student, German

anagumakate[at]gmail.com

 

The term Gastarbeiterliteratur, or literature written by guest workers, refers to a largely autobiographical body of literature written by first generation immigrants who came to primarily West Germany as manual laborers following the economic boom of the 1950’s. The designators Ausländerliteratur, foreigner literature, and Literatur der Betroffenheit, literature of consternation, have also been applied to literature stemming from and describing the migration of foreign workers to Germany. The latter is a more politically oriented term coined by Franco Biondi and Rafik Schami in 1981 and referring to the frustration expressed by many migrant authors over poor working conditions, racism, and difficulties integrating, and being accepted into, German society. 

The trend of literature written by guest workers had many traits in common with the more general tradition of worker’s literature, which describes the daily existence and living conditions of the working class. Guest worker literature provided readers with a means of seeing through a double estrangement; these authors were members of the working class in addition to being immigrants, thus offering readers a window into multiple very different existences. Guest worker literature provided readers with a voyeuristic look at the thoughts, experiences, and daily lives of those individuals they found intriguing, but likely would not want to meet (Chiellino, 1995, 50-51).

Guest worker literature and Literatur der Betroffenheit were looked to as sources of information, as accounts of foreign circumstances that interested readers more in terms of curiosity and solicitousness than because of any true, politically motivated interest in changing conditions. It was key in setting a foundation for the way in which German literature by authors of non-German heritage is read in Germany today and it served as a starting point not only for literary trends, but also for trends in critical and public reception.

Although guest worker literature was usually written in German, in the majority of cases, it was written by non-native speakers and individuals without secondary education. Therefore a unique use of the language became characteristic of the genre. The German employed by these writers, the specific linguistic strategies, and the manner in which writers inflected German with words and structures from their native languages have been, and continue to be, associated with immigrants in Germany. Gastarbeiterdeutsch, “Fremdendeutsch” (von Zimmermann, 19), or Kanakdeutsch in the specific case of Turkish migrants, change and evolve, however. Public perception and associations also change according to the social and political status, either positive or negative, and visibility of these sociolects.

            The designation Gastarbeiterliteratur is no longer applied to contemporary literature for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it has become overly reductive and as such can no longer be considered accurate. Authors who have migrated to Germany for political, personal, or educational reasons are not included in the term, nor are descendants of guest workers and other migrants who may have spent all or the vast majority of their lives in Germany. Furthermore, the term “guest worker literature” implies a limited thematic field. And finally, due to the negative connotations that the terms “Gastarbeiter” and “Ausländer” have accumulated over the years, and both terms’ dependence on exclusory borders and boundaries, it could be perceived as being discriminatory.

 

Works Cited

 

Biondi, Franco and Rafik Schami. “Literatur der Betroffenheit: Bemerkungen zur Gastarbeiterliteratur.” Zu Hause in der Fremde: ein bundesdeutsches Ausländer-Lesebuch. Ed. Christian Schaffernicht. Fischerhude: Verlag Atelier im Bauernhaus, 1981. 

 

Chiellino, Carmine. Fremde: Discourse on the Foreign. Trans. Louise von Flotow. Toronto: Guernica, 1995.

 

von Zimmerman, Christian. “Kulturthema Migration und Interkulturelles Schreiben”.

recherces germaniques. Ed. Christine Maillard. Revue Annuelle. Serie N˚3, 2006. 7 – 25.