Hüsnü Yilmaz

Turkish Immigration Literature in Germany: the Social Drama and Transformation in the Trilogy of Emine Sevgi Özdamar Hüsnü Yilmaz

This work is about the life of an unnamed heroine in the trilogy of a Turkish woman writer, Emine Sevgi Ozdamar, who is a representative of Turkish Immigration Literature in Germany. Her works, however, are different from the works of other immigrant writers. One reason is the language Ozdamar uses in her works. The language of her novels is a mixture of German and Turkish. Her literal translation of Turkish phrases and idioms to German is one of the distinctive characteristics of her novels. Content and context of the novels are also opposite the stereotyped immigration novels. The focus of this study is to analyze the changes in the life of the protagonist who undergoes a transformation in Germany. In the light of the relationship between social drama and rituals proposed by Victor Turner, the social drama of Turkey in the first novel, Caravanserai, and the transformation of the protagonist in the second novel, The Golden Horn, will be comparatively examined. Changes and novelties in the transformation of the protagonist after her immigration to Germany will be analyzed as an outcome of the social contradictions and norm conflicts between the sending and receiving societies.