Intertextual Continuities: Intergenerational, Multimodal, and Translingual Knowledge Production in Literature by Black German-speaking Authors

Abstract

Intertextual Continuities:Intergenerational, Multimodal, and Translingual Knowledge Production in Literature by Black German-speaking Authors Andrea Dawn Bryant (bio) In her 1997 article "The Challenge of 'Missing Contents' for Canon Formation in German Studies," literature scholar Elke Frederikson commences a well-versed and intertextual reckoning with the power of the canon to limit and exclude large portions of the human experience1 by recalling a comment by Paul Lauter listing multiculturalism and feminism as something requiring one "to learn new texts, new histories, new conceptions of culture" in ways that open, rather than close, one's mind.2 In my book project, I grapple with issues of canonization, community, and humanity as Frederikson and Gross3 did three decades prior. I thus encounter a reckoning with many of the same complicities contained in canonization of literary texts. More specifically, I traverse within and across varied mellifluous texts by German-speaking writers of the African diaspora. I accomplish these aims by underscoring the continuity of literary production and through visiting four sites of epistemic literary production: intertextuality as a writerly gesture; intergenerational continuums as manifestations of (a) dynamic literary tradition(s); multimodality and translinguality as sites of literary and epistemic resistance(s); and a return to intertextuality as a readerly manifestation. Commencing, as Elke Frederikson did in 1997, through the voices of previous scholars, I observe the ongoing exchange and dynamic dialogue taken on by the nuances of intertextuality, which is understood to mean the conscious amplification of messages produced by previous authors through written, gestural, and spoken repetition. I argue that the intertextual amplification of knowledge production and literary products provides a sustainable and generative continuum that exhibits literariness and contributes to the creation of an adhesive body of work. As I show, the same is true with the cultural, knowledge, and literary production of Black German-speaking writers and authors, which remains anchored in rich literary and epistemic traditions. In the second site of epistemic and literary production, I approach the topic from an intergenerational point of view and recognize the texts as exhibiting additional nuance and depth. My considerations in this realm highlight the generative continuum of works across several generations. Cyclical rather than linear, ongoing dialogues additionally underscore that the literary narrative cannot be bound to one historical framing of identity or belonging;4 rather, they span across generations and demonstrate the dynamic and living presence of individual voices pronouncing them. Indeed, they remain in constant communication across expanses of time, space, language, and place, and transcend those borders of existence and belonging where human limits of bias, location, and oppression refuse them this possibility. These intergenerational [End Page 139] enunciations of canon confirm that the epistemic literary production in works by Black German-speaking writers is full of variation, richness, and nuance. My considerations of border crossings, although limited by the weights of structural oppressions and systemic racisms, progress through several encounters of translingual and multimodal productions of language and sound. These interrelated sites go against the grain to inscribe belonging in canon and existence.5 In this nexus, I link translinguality with transnationalism and multimodality with intergenerationality. I underscore the influence of diasporic resources6 and the affective bonds present in the Black German movement7 and subsequently highlight the possibility of translingual modes of existence8 to push for social justice and activism9. Coming full circle to my position as a reader, I consider how my stance has influenced my experiences and perceptions of the chosen sites of production and literary texts. I additionally grapple with my readerly positionality as a white middle-aged settler woman from the United States who has academic training in the colonial language of German. It is against this backdrop that I further engage with broader questions related to white supremacy and our predispositions to canonize. Throughout the project, I question what a dominant fixation on the written as opposed to the spoken word suggests about the nature of which epistemologies are valued. I highlight those texts by Black German-speaking women and blend literary genres throughout the project. While these aspects have been incorporated in previous scholarship, few combine them in monographs on literary texts and even...