Cultiural Diversity and Transnationality in Baltic German Autobiografical Texts
Cultiural Diversity and Transnationality in Baltic German Autobiografical Texts

Summary/Abstract: This article stems from the research of oral history and life stories in Estonia. While both stories and research studies made on the basis of stories at the end of the 20th century concentrated on the experience of the 20th-century events (World War II, mass repressions, life under the conditions of the Soviet authority, etc.), more and more attention is currently paid to the present day (multicultural environments, virtual communities, communication space of transnational families, etc.). The article observes, on the basis of Baltic German texts, life in a culturally diverse environment and transnational family in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. By means of text analysis, the authors’ subjective geographies are mapped and thereafter, their attitudes to one or the other territory and the cultural “other” are described. The question is, what is the common share of cultural diversity and transnationality in the past and in the present-day society; which factors favour this common share (mutual relationships of family members, existence of communication networks etc.) and which ones exclude it (historical-cultural features, like e.g. the existence of the class society).

• Details
• Contents