‚Reisen nach Jerusalem‘. Postkoloniale Identitätskonstruktion bei zeitgenössischen deutsch-jüdischen Autorinnen und Autoren osteuropäischer Herkunft

In this article, I analyse the literary texts of Olga Gryaznova and Dmitry Kapitelman. The authors were born in the 1980s and thus belong to the second generation of so-called ‘contingent refugees’, who fled the Soviet Union as Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union to Germany. The importance of postcolonial theorisation for the texts is emphasised not only on a theoretical and methodological level, but also within the discursive organisation of the texts: ‘All Russians love birch trees’ (2012) by Grjasnowa and “The Smile of My Invisible Father” (2016) by Kapitelman reflect on issues of cultural identity from the point of view of people socialised in Germany, in which the reference to Jewish belonging plays a key role. The concept of intergration is questioned in literary terms and combined with critical analyses with the parental generation and the discourse of integration in Germany. In this process, the trip to Israel plays an important catalytic function, despite the fact that none of the main characters find their place in this state.