The paper presents a new approach to writing literary history from a postmigrant perspective and applies this approach to the Austrian literary field. The aim is to understand how literary fields change through migration. The first step towards such a postmigrant perspective is migrantising literary history, i.e. rewriting it from a perspective that includes migrants also when they had no access to literary fields. This analysis grants insight into how migrants came to be excluded from literary fields in the process of their nationalisation. The second step is telling the history of how migrants overcame this exclusion in postmigrant alliances with other actors, such as publishers and critics, and tried to influence the discourse of migration with their writing. Four authors were of particular importance in this process: Vladimir Vertlib broke the silence on migration in the Austrian literary field in the early 1990s. Dimitré Dinev established a new way of narrating about migrants without reducing them to others. Julya Rabinowich questioned the strict distinction between non-migrants and migrants. Anna Kim moved beyond migration by opening Austrianness for people of colour and writing world literature in German that raises awareness of human suffering worldwide. All four were important for changing the Austrian literary field, but they only marginally succeeded in changing the understanding of migration, as the reviews of their works illustrate.

In theoretical debates on postmigration there has been a growing interest in cultural-political alliances between persons with different backgrounds, often framed as “postmigrant alliances” (e.g. Stjepandić/Karakayalı). Those alliances are typically understood as attempts to move beyond the idea of stable identity groups and clear-cut distinctions between groups of marginalized and groups of non-marginalized members of society. They are based on political values and political friendship rather than on commonly shared experiences or backgrounds, often recognizing the complexity of modern subject positions, understanding them as a ‘dynamic flowing of positions’ (Dabiri). In my presentation I want to reflect on those alliances in the literary fields of Denmark and Germany. From a historical perspective, there have been attempts to build inclusive alliances in the literary fields of both countries, but with different strengths and intensities. In focusing on the differences and similarities in both countries, I want to open up a new way of understanding the developments in both countries: What kind of strategies have been used in Denmark and Germany, respectively, how could the differences and similarities between the countries be explained, and what impact did those alliances make on the literary field in both countries? How can the analytical focus on postmigrant alliances help to map the dynamics of exclusion and inclusion in the literary field, and how did they influence the way, we perceive the literary developments in those countries?

This paper discusses whether the notion of postmigration can help contribute new insights into Swedish authors’ language use. While earlier literary research on bi- and multilingualism often focused on literary texts, a more recent trend is to understand language use in terms of ongoing practices and processes of constructing, crossing and dissolving borders and boundaries. Methodologically, a multi-level approach has been suggested to capture how multilingualism stems from interactions between texts, authors, readers and literary institutions and society at large. This concerns a variety of aspects, from monolingual ‘mother tongues’ linked to ethnicity, nation building and a national literary tradition, to bi- and multilingual local literatures as entangled with global processes, notably migration.

The paper attempts a multi-level analysis of the empirical material consisting of the authors’ accounts of their mono-, bi- and multilingualism contextualised in their carrier trajectories. The aim is to investigate the interactions between the authors’ language use and their entanglements in literary and cultural spaces, and how the authors in question position themselves as writers. This material was collected via the means of face-to-face open-ended interviews as part of the project Academia and cultural production as postmigrant fields in Sweden. The paper argues that the lens of postmigration helps highlight the complexities in how the uses of different languages in a literary field that is traditionally viewed as national and monolingual, can both defy ethnifying ascriptions and turn a monolingual position into a transgressive one – aesthetically and politically.

Social conventions and existing power relations are called into question by migration processes. The term post-migrant, in turn, is to be understood "as a subversive reference to the fluidity of origin, culture and the transformation of collective identity". As a result, migration "reorganises cultural narratives, national narratives and premises of belonging." (Foroutan 2019, 49) In a post-migrant society fundamental issues like the content and objects of learning as well as the overall objectives of institutionalized education have to be reflected upon and reconceptualised. Reducing discrimination and racism must be a central pedagogical goal in order to allow for a successful educational and professional career for all members of society. This is of great importance, especially in view of the particularly pronounced educational inequality in Austria. Therefore, the starting point of this paper is the question: What is the potential of aesthetic education to contribute to such a transformation of the school system in particular and of society at large?

Aesthetic learning from a post-migrant perspective contributes to liberating migration-related heterogeneity "from its exceptionality and [to] recognising it as a normal case and not as a deviation from the norm" (Hodaie 2022, 143). A hegemony-critical perspective is crucial here, as it helps to recognise and understand different forms of inferiorisation and discrimination and can lead to transgressing binary thinking and essentialism based on a supposedly clear distinction between a dominant majority’s 'we' and a migrant 'non-we'. Contrary to this dichotomous juxtaposition, literary education can "enable participation so that other, new, contrapuntal stories of migration and belonging, of literature and language are told" (Hodaie 2022, 143).

The paper discusses the theoretical basis for literary education in the sense of a post-migrant aesthetic and a pedagogy of multiple belongings, with reference to postcolonial theories (Kißling 2022), raciocritical education (Fereidooni & Simon 2021) and migration pedagogy (Mecheril et al. 2010). The focus is on the potential of aesthetic education to "establish a forward-looking and solidary understanding of migration and society" (Call for Papers). The theoretical perspectives of an empirical research project will be discussed, which will be carried out in the school year 2024/25 and will serve to investigate learning processes that are designed in the sense of a post-migrant aesthetic education. The overall learning objectives, the criteria for selecting literary texts and the types of tasks that are assumed to best help shaping processes of aesthetic learning will be discussed. By presenting the theoretical foundations for this empirical research project, the concept of a post-migrant aesthetic education will also be put up for discussion.

Sources

Fereidooni, Karim & Simon, Nina (eds., 2020): Rassismuskritische Fachdidaktiken. Theoretische Reflexionen und fachdidaktische Entwürfe rassismuskritischer Unterrichtsplanung. Springer VS.

Foroutan, Naika (2019): Die postmigrantische Gesellschaft. Ein Versprechen der pluralen Demokratie. transcript.

Hodaie, Nazli (2022): Der Postmigrantische Literaturunterricht. In: Behrendt, Renata & Pos, Söhnke (eds.): Heimat in der postmigrantischen Gesellschaft. Literaturdidaktische Perspektiven. Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles u.a.: Peter Lang, pp. 133-148.

Kißling, Magdalena (2020). Weiße Normalität. Perspektiven einer postkolonialen Literaturdidaktik. Bielefeld: Aisthesis.

Mecheril, Paul et al. (2010): Migrationspädagogik. Weinheim: Beltz.