Zafer Çenocak ed. by Tom Cheesman, Karin E. Yeçilada (review)

Abstract

1112 Reviews Romantics and Modernist aesthetics. This not only brings out the musicality of Duden 's writing, a theme which, like that ofvisual art, runs throughout the contributions here, but also furtherwidens the appeal and the impact of Duden's work. University College of Swansea Beth Linklater Zafer $enocak. Ed. by Tom Cheesman and Karin E. Yesjlada. (Contemporary German Writers) Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 2003. x+187 pp. ?15 (pbk ?7.99). ISBN 0-7083-1811-8 (pbk 0-7083-1810-x). The Turkish-German Zafer ?enocak (born in 1961) is rapidly coming to prominence as a lyric poet and essayist, and also as the author of a tetralogy of novels. This latest volume in the Cardiff Contemporary German Writers series (it is in fact the eleventh, though oddly they are not numbered) is the firstscholarly attempt at a comprehensive evaluation and presentation of his work. As primary sources it offersfifteenpages of new poetry and the transcript of a literary interview with the poet. A cursory bio? graphical overview and an exceptionally thorough bibliography are also useful assets, particularly as the books in this series seek to sell themselves as reference works. The bulk of the volume consists of short articles by academies. Identity has always been a key theme in the works of migrant writers, and this applies also to ?enocak, whose novels play constantly with uncertainties about what we are and who's who. This is explored in a finediscussion by Monika Carbe of ?enocak's Errotomane {1999), in which she shows how this psychological meandering is in part a working out of the author's personal 'interkultureller Riss'. It would have been good if Carbe had drawn the comparison with Aras Oren, for example, with his Berlin Savignyplatz (1995), for much of what she presents as original in ?enocak's novel is in fact highly deriyative, and there would have been scope for interesting intertextual discussions here. Oren likewise allows existential questions of personal identity to merge with political questions of cultural identity, leading to a bewildering quest from which the protagonist can emerge with new insights but with no easy answers. ?enocak rejects the cliche-ridden Turkish 'identity' of German perception, which inevitably means that Said and Orientalism feature largely in some ofthe discussions. Ulrich Beil's article 'Wider den Exotismus' documents this, showing how some mig? rant writers have cashed in on Western perceptions ('Selbstexotisierung'), to which ?enocak's anti-exotic tendency must be seen as a conscious reaction. Here ?enocak? and Beil?are particularly critical of Emine Sevgi Ozdamar, and ironically the same politically correct zeal which elevated her in the scholarship of the 1990s now ap? pears to damn her. ?enocak's rejection of the exotic is entirely understandable in a generation that seeks to belong in Germany and still make sense of its roots, but the priorities of the firstgeneration were different,and it might have been more useful here to have explored the ways in which conflicting strategies may be equally legi? timate. It would have been interesting, for example, to have worked out a discourse between ?enocak and the Syrian-German Rafik Schami, whose use ofthe techniques of traditional oriental storytelling is noteworthy precisely for the way in which he successfully harnesses the exotic to communicate on intercultural questions. The debate on the catchphrase 'between two cultures', taken up by Leslie Adelson in 'Against Between', is also of some importance. As a well-balanced bicultural, ?enocak experiences his cultures as two intersecting circles, the area between the culturally distinct elements being not a gap, but rather the common ground. This optimistic attitude to the richness of biculturality is useful in challenging inadequate notions of cultural boundaries. But here again, a recognition of the diversity of mig? rant experience could have provided a necessary counterpoint; other authors (Alev MLR, 99.4, 2004 1113 Tekinay, Sadik Yemni) portray the experience of less fortunate migrants who find themselves excluded from both of their communities, and in terms of group dynamics , 'between' is precisely where they find themselves. Other excellent essays are Karin Yesilada's plea forthe priority of ?enocak's lyrics, and Tom Cheesman's reflections on cultural clashes. University of Regensburg...