Religionsgrenzen und Transnationalität in der neuen Literatur aus Südosteuropa
Religious Boundaries and Transnationalism in Recent Literature from Southeast Europe

Summary/Abstract: Literary works written by refugees from the Yugoslav secession wars of the 1990s perfectly fit the criteria of post-colonial and transnational literature: Oscillating between their new homes in the West and their homeland in the Balkans, they typically write semi fiction about their hybrid identities. They tell us stories about alienation and loneliness both in the country of origin (patriarchate, misogyny, homophobia) and the host country (racism, discrimination) and personalize the “third space” paradigm and transcultural “inbetweenness”. The article presents novels of the two Bulgarian diaspora writers Kapka Kassabova and Miroslav Penkov, the Finnish-Kosovar writer Pajtim Statovci and the Bosnian authors Aleksandar Hemon and Bekim Sejranović. The focus is on the representation of cultural and religious differences, challenging the pejorative perception of Islam and the Ottoman legacy in the mainstream discourse in most Balkan countries.

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