Journal article

Authors list: Oesterhelt, Anja

Publication year: 2021

Pages: 293-312

Journal: The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory

Volume number: 96

Issue number: 3

ISSN: 0016-8890

eISSN: 1930-6962

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/00168890.2021.1943645

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group

Abstract: 
This contribution analyzes authentic and fictional letters from 19th-century emigrants and their semantics of Heimat. Under the conditions of migration, letters in particular become the central medium for everyday reflection on homeland. This article shows that the use of the term Heimat encompassed a very large semantic spectrum, which takes up various connotations of Heimat in German-speaking countries, while at the same time shaping this discourse through the experience of migration. This mutual influence can be traced in German Realism, in which fictitious letters from emigrants played a crucial role. The literary discourse on Heimat, the second part of this article shows, echoes the massive migration experiences of the time.

Harvard Citation style: Oesterhelt, A. (2021) Neue Heimat Amerika: Briefe deutscher Ausgewanderter im 19. Jahrhundert. Mit uberlegungen zum literarischen Auswandererbrief bei Berthold Auerbach, The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 96(3), pp. 293-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/00168890.2021.1943645

APA Citation style: Oesterhelt, A. (2021). Neue Heimat Amerika: Briefe deutscher Ausgewanderter im 19. Jahrhundert. Mit uberlegungen zum literarischen Auswandererbrief bei Berthold Auerbach. The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory. 96(3), 293-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/00168890.2021.1943645