Title:
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'Landkarten innerer Welten' : the novels of Güney Dal
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This thesis examines the novels of Guney Dal and represents the first attempt to engage
with all of his works in detail. Hitherto it is principally the first two of his novels - those
that most easily fit into the dominant generation-based patterns of reception - that have
been discussed by critics in their excursions into the field of 'migrant' literature in
Germany. I show that this has obscured the variety and experimentation of his work.
The novels are introduced and discussed in chronological order, allowing the
continuities of Dal's writing project to come to the fore. My examinations of Dal's
novels are based on close readings of the individual texts, with an awareness of the
multiple wider contexts within which these works exist. The thematic substance of
Dal's novels has remained largely constant during the course of his career. However, he
has approached this material through a variety of narrative styles and forms: from the
didactic socialist realism of Wenn Ali die Glocken lduten hart, to the modernist streamof-
consciousness narration of EuropastrafJe 5, the postmodern metafiction of Der
enthaarte Affe and Eine kurze Reise nach Gallipoli, through to the historical novel
Teestunden am Ring. The latest work, Kii~iik Adznda Biri, fuses the workerist
focus of the early works with his experimentation with postmodernism. Dal has never
shied away from stretching the' boundaries of his narrative repertoire. The later, more
experimental, novels retain a political edge while the early works already show
indications of Dal's willingness to experiment as a writer. This. thesis will demonstrate
that his fiction operates on this very tension between social commentary and literary
experimentation.
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