GERMANY AND RUSSIA IN THE WRITINGS OF LOU ANDREAS

386 Pages·2015·2.17 MB·English

by  Matthew Hill

ABSTRACT

Title of Document: CULTURAL AND SOCIAL BORDER
CROSSINGS: GERMANY AND RUSSIA IN
THE WRITINGS OF LOU ANDREAS-
SALOMÉ (1861-1937) AND ALINA
BRONSKY (1978-).

Regina Ianozi, Doctor of Philosophy 2015

Directed By: Professor Elke P. Frederiksen,
Department of Germanic Studies

This study explores sociocultural discourses on Russia and Germany and examines
the intercultural and gendered hybrid identity formation among Russian-German
women in the texts of Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937) Fenitschka (1898), Russland
mit Rainer (1900), and Rodinka (1923) and in Alina Bronsky’s novels (1978-)
Scherbenpark (2008) and Die schärfsten Gerichte der tatarischen Küche (2010). The
project employs an interdisciplinary approach in the analyses of texts by combining
the methodologies of cultural and intercultural studies, German cultural studies, as
well as feminist and gender studies. It further incorporates a historical overview of the
major political events and economic relationships between Russia and Germany at the
end of the nineteenth through the twentieth, and the beginning of the twenty first
century. The study analyzes the influence that these events had on societal
mainstream perceptions of the ‘Other’ during these periods. The discourse on
Soviet/Russian and German cultural encounters as well as the concept of ‘Otherness’
particularly from a Russian-German perspective were investigated. The texts reveal
the rich German cultural presence in Russia throughout the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries and the social position of minorities in Soviet Russia in late twentieth
century and in post-reunification Germany. It also looks at the ‘Woman Question’
and gender issues in both nations and the deviation from societal gender norms
among Russian-German women.
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL BORDER CROSSINGS: GERMANY AND RUSSIA
IN THE WRITINGS OF LOU ANDREAS-SALOMÉ (1861-1937) AND ALINA
BRONSKY (1978-).

By

Regina Ianozi

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2015

Advisory Committee:
Professor Elke P. Frederiksen, Chair
Professor Gabriele Strauch
Professor Julie Koser
Professor Rose-Marie Oster
Professor Marsha Rozenblit
© Copyright by
Regina Ianozi
2015
Dedication
To my Parents
ii
Acknowledgements
Over the past 7 years of my Graduate Studies at UMD I have received support and
encouragement from my committee members, my friends, colleagues and my family
to whom I am extremely grateful. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
dissertation advisor, Dr. Elke Frederiksen, for her excellent guidance, caring,
patience, and inspiration both academically and personally. I am grateful for the
academic support I received from the faculty members in the Department of
Germanic Studies, especially from the Department Chair, Dr. Peter Beicken, and my
committee members Dr. Gabriele Strauch, Dr. Julie Koser, and Dr. Rose-Marie
Oster—each of them have provided excellent advice and continuously
encouragement—and to Dr. Marsha Rozenblit, who was willing to serve on my
defense committee on short notice. I would not have been able to pursue my Ph.D.
studies without the financial support of the School of Languages, Literatures, and
Cultures at UMD—the SLLC community has been an inviting, supportive and
inspiring place to work and study. I would like to express my deepest gratitude
especially to Anthony Ianozi for his continuous support throughout the last 15 years
and to Inna Cassery for her friendship and support. Finally, I thank all my nine
siblings and above all my parents, Alexander and Maria Haag, for directly inspiring
me to write about the subject in this dissertation and encouraging me throughout my
life to pursue my dreams.
iii
Table of Contents

Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii
Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... iv
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
I. Purpose and Significance of the Study .................................................................. 7
II. German-Russian/Soviet Political and Cultural Relationships: A Sociocultural
and Politically Historical Overview ........................................................................ 14
III. Wilhelmine Germany and the Tsarist Russian Relationship around 1900 ....... 21
IV. Russian-German Cultural Encounters before, during and after World War I .. 24
V. Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union and the End of any Hope for Peace ....... 26
VI. German-Soviet Relations after 1945 ................................................................ 31
VII. Russian and German Cultural Encounters after 1990 ..................................... 33
VIII. Literature Review of Russian-German Literary Studies ................................ 34
Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework ............................................................................. 38
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 38
I. Introduction to Cultural Studies and German Cultural Studies ........................... 40
II. Intercultural Studies ........................................................................................... 47
1. Encountering the ‘Other’ Culture ............................................................... 47
2. Cultural and Intercultural Identity Development ........................................ 50
3. Intercultural Identification through Language ............................................ 52
III. Interculturalism and ‘German Literature’ ......................................................... 56
1. The Intercultural Text ................................................................................. 59
IV. Feminist and Gender Studies Perspective......................................................... 62
1. The Development of Feminist Culture within Germany ............................ 62
2. Gender Studies ............................................................................................ 63
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 66
Chapter 2: Interculturality, the Woman’s Position, and the Persistence of Social and
Cultural Dichotomies in Lou Andreas-Salomé ’s Fenitschka .................................... 67
Introduction ............................................................................................................. 67
1. The Intercultural Lou Andreas-Salomé : Biographical Overview ...................... 75
II. Salomé ’s own Emancipation ............................................................................. 91
III. German, Russian, and German-Russian Socio-Cultural Norms: Interculturality
and Gender Discourses across Nations ................................................................. 100
IV. Lou Andreas-Salomé Questions the ‘Woman Question’ in Fenitscha: Women’s
Stagnant Position on Social Issues ........................................................................ 130
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 155
Chapter 3: Salomé’s Russland mit Rainer and Rodinka ........................................... 157
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 157
1. Salomé ’s Loss of ‘Heimat’ and Rediscovery of ‘Rodina’ ............................... 159
II. Encountering Russia ......................................................................................... 177
III. Russian and German and Russian-German Cultures in Salomé s’ Rodinka .. 190
IV. ‘Rodina’ and ‘Heimat’ of the Germans in Russia .......................................... 194
iv
V. The Intercultural ‘Woman Question’ within Russian Society in Rodinka ...... 210
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 215
Chapter 4: Alina Bronsky’s Intercultural and Social Border Crossings in
Scherbenpark and Die schärfsten Gerichte der tatarischen Küche .......................... 217
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 217
I. Transnational and Intercultural Discourse and the Encounter with the Soviet
Culture................................................................................................................... 225
II. Anti-Semitism in the ‘Classless’, ‘Marxist’ Nation ......................................... 228
II. Cultural and Ethnic Minorities in the Soviet Union: An Intercultural Encounter
with a ‘Tatarka’ ..................................................................................................... 233
IV. Soviet Every-day Life ..................................................................................... 237
V. Germany as the ‘Other’ .................................................................................... 246
VI. Transnationalism through Music and Interculturality through Cuisine: ‘The
Melting Pot’, ‘The Tossed Salad’ or the Central-Asian ‘Plov .............................. 253
VII. Interculturality Though Language Integration .............................................. 258
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 266
Chapter 5: Integration through Intercultural and Gendered Identity Development in
Alina Bronsky’s Scherbenpark and Die schärfsten Gerichte der tatarischen Küche
................................................................................................................................... 268
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 268
I. From Failed Integration to Acculturation: The Social, Cultural and Economic
Situation of Russian-speaking Immigrants in Germany ....................................... 270
1. Reasons for Immigration from Former Soviet Union to Germany ........... 270
2. The Integration Process and its Effects on Russian-speaking immigrants 273
3. Lack of Linguistic Ability as Hindrance for Integration .......................... 277
4. The Vicious Circle of Lack of Linguistic and Economic Capital ............. 282
5. The Implications of Social and Physical Segregation of Immigrants ....... 288
6. Psychological Ramification of Segregation of Immigrants ...................... 295
7. Acculturation Process Through Interaction .............................................. 301
II. Deconstruction of the Male and Female Images and Construction of an
Intercultural Identity in Contemporary German and Russian/Soviet Societies .... 305
1. Alina Bronsky’s Russian and German Male Characters Juxtaposed ........ 305
2. Gender Roles Through the Russian-speaking Women’s Perception ........ 313
3. The Construction of the Intercultural Gendered Hybrid Identity ............. 320
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 329
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 332
Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 345

v
Introduction

Perhaps one of the most debated statements of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
term in office was her proclamation of Germany’s failure to create a functioning
multicultural society. This statement was not meant to imply that immigrants were
not welcomed in Germany; rather, she was emphasizing Germany’s need to re-
evaluate attitudes towards the integration of immigrants. She critiqued multiculturism
for its assertion that persons from different countries of origin could live within the
borders of a single nation, in this case Germany, without forming a national identity,
which they associated with Germany.1 Examinations of discourses on
multiculturalism and interculturality have also been considered by numerous German
Studies scholars, studying the phenomena from a myriad of diverse perspectives such
as Turkish-German2 or Afro-German.3 Much of this scholarship has revealed that
considerations of immigration, ‘race’ and ethnicity are most productive when
interrogated in conjunction with questions of Gender and through Feminist Studies
methodological approaches. This relationship was first most notably analyzed by
Gayatri Spivak in her study Can the Subaltern Speak? (1988), which examined the

1 In “Merkel erklärt Multikulti für gescheitert,” 16 Oct. 2010. Spiegel-Online. 2010,
<http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,723532,00.html.>. Angela Merkel stated during the
Deutschlandtag der Jungen Union: “Der Ansatz für Multikulti ist gescheitert, absolut gescheitert!”
[English translation: the approach to the multicultural society has absolutely failed.] All translation are
made by me unless noted otherwise.
2 Leslie Adelson’s The Turkish Turn in Contemporary German Literature: Toward a New Critical
Grammar of Migration (2005) as representative and influential for the Turkish-German perspective.
3 Tina Campt, Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender, and Memory in the
Third Reich, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2004), as being representative of the Afro-German
perspective.
1
creation of knowledge of the ‘Other’4 within Western scholarship through an analysis
of the Indian Sati practice of widow suicide. Questions of ‘Otherness’ and German
national identity have also benefited from the integration of gender and Feminist
Studies, resulting in landmark research calling into question hegemonic, patriarchal
concepts of German identity.5
This study adds to these voices by examining questions of gender,
immigration and German identity from a Russian-German perspective. Although
other scholars have investigated Russian-German relations and identity,6 this research
is distinctive in that it focuses on the nexus of gender and Russian-German identity,
but because it traces the unique historical and cultural position of Russian immigrants
within German society across a century of contentious German-Russian political

4 The philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas refers to the term ‘Other’ in Emmanuel Lévinas and Nidra
Poller, Humanism of the Other (Urbana; Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003) and Edward Said
in Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979) uses the term to identify as not of the same kind or
as different.
5 An example from the Afro-German perspective is Katharine Oguntoye, May Opitz, and Dagmar
Schultz, eds. Farbe bekennen. Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte. Berlin: Orlanda
Frauenverlag, 1986. For Turkish-German perspectives refer to Michael Hofmann, Deutsch-
Literaturwissenschaft (Würzburg: nigshausen & Neumann, 2013); Saniye ysal- nalan,
-deutschen
Gegenwartsliteratur (Würzburg: nigshausen & Neumann, 2013); Thorben P the,
(München: Iudicium,
2013).
6 The latest studies focusing on the Russian-German identity and immigration include works by the
following scholars: Lilli Gebhard,
ihrer Literatur (Frankfurt: Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2014);
Michael C Hermann, Rainer hlschl ger,
Integrationsprobleme russlanddeutscher Jugendlicher 250 Jahre nach dem Einladungsmanifest von
Katharina II.: Deutsch-Russisches Jahr der Bildung, Wissenschaft und Innovation 2011/12 (Baden-
Baden: Nomos, 2013); Markus aiser, Michael Sch nhuth, Zuhause? fremd?: Migrations- und
Beheimatungsstrategien zwischen Deutschland und Eurasien (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2015); Svetlana
Kiel, Wi -
russlanddeutschen Aussiedlerfamilien (Münster: Waxmann, 2009); Irina Klass, Wo liegt unsere
Heimat?: Eine visualisierte Migrationsgeschichte der Russlanddeutschen (Osnabrück: fibre, 2009);
Irina Liebenstein Integrationsprobleme von Russlanddeutschen (Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag, 2010);
Birgit Menzel, Christine Engel, ?: Ethnische Remigration rus
(Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2014); Dmitri Steiz, -

Gegenwart. (Marburg: Tectum Verlag, 2011); Sabine Zinn-Thomas, Fremde
. (Bielefeld: transcript, 2014).
2