Laughter and Social Criticism in Güney Dal’s Novel Europastraße 5

Authors

Keywords:

Güney Dal, Europastraße 5, comicality, power

Abstract

Published in 1981, Güney Dal’s novel Europastraße 5 represents an important document for the construction of a fictional imaginary concerning post-war German literature. Focusing on the representation of Turkish immigrants, the novel deals with the relationship between dominant and minority groups, with a special interest in the confluence between comicality and power. Based on the concept of comicality as mechanization (Bergson) and the concept of laughter with its potential of subversion (Bakhtin), this article aims to analyse two spheres of social interaction: in a first step, the encounter with different forms of authority, then the representation of the workspace. In both spheres, laughter draws on the tradition of social criticism.

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Author Biography

Dionei Mathias, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul / Brasil

Professor do Departamento de Letras Estrangeiras Modernas e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Doutor Letras pela Universität Hamburg. 

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Published

2023-01-03

How to Cite

Mathias, D. (2023). Laughter and Social Criticism in Güney Dal’s Novel Europastraße 5. Aletria: Revista De Estudos De Literatura, 32(4), 149–171. Retrieved from https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/aletria/article/view/40443

Issue

Vol. 32 No. 4 (2022): Literaturas e Artes Negras em Diálogos Contínuos

Section

Varia

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Copyright (c) 2022 Dionei Mathias (Autor)

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