Abstract
This article compares the use of statements and assertions that rely heavily on stereotypes in Paula Bulling’s Im Land der Frühaufsteher (2012) and Nacha Vollenweider’s Fußnoten (2017). Through theories of cross-cultural communication, this essay draws attention to the relationship between stereotypes and the organization of conversations and dialogues. I thereby demonstrate how the foreign characters in both graphic novels—a Malian asylum seeker in Bulling’s graphic novel, and an Argentine immigrant who does not yet have the “dauerhafte Aufenthaltsgenehmigung” in Fußnoten—are more capable than local Germans in working through disturbances in cross-cultural communication, allowing for the conversation to move forward. This essay therefore reveals how these graphic novels either completely subvert common existing stereotypes about Black Africans or encourage a reassessment of the alleged openness of Germany in an era of global migration and displacement, while empowering immigrants and asylum seekers by illuminating their cross-cultural competence in daily conversations.
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