Beschreibung:German colonial ventures have long remained in the peripheral vision of postcolonial studies, framed as less significant than the more visible and more studied colonialisms of Britain and France. Recent literary and activist interventions allow us to reassess this. How has the relationship between Germany and colonialism been represented in writing in English? How have German characters in the (post) colonies been framed? How has an upsurge in interest in these colonial histories – be it in discussions about the renaming of streets, the repatriation of museum collections, or other forms – manifested in cultural practices like postcolonial/decolonial city tours? In this seminar, we’ll consider these questions, reading Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives (2020) and selected other texts, as well as exploring some of the practices that have emerged to grapple with these histories.
