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Towards a ‘Pragmatic Cosmopolitanism’: Rethinking Solidarity with Refugees in Olga Grjasnowa's Gott ist nicht schüchtern
- Modern Language Review
- Modern Humanities Research Association
- Volume 114, Part 4, October 2019
- pp. 819-840
- 10.1353/mlr.2019.0100
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract
Abstract:
This article examines Olga Grjasnowa's depiction of the 2015 'refugee crisis' in Gott ist nicht schüchtern (2017), focusing on how this German-language writer of Russian Jewish extraction offers a nuanced understanding of refugees’ motives for flight. Further to this, the article explores the novel's implied critique of cosmopolitan memory and multidirectional memory (Levy/Sznaider; Rothberg) as an underpinning of contemporary humanitarian activism and empathy with refugees. Gott ist nicht schüchtern instead promotes a ‘pragmatic cosmopolitanism’ that in harking back to states’ obligations under the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention recalls Hannah Arendt and present-day political philosophers such as Seyla Benhabib.
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