Love as a >Third Space<: Feridun Zaimoglu's Fire of Love (Liebesbrand) as an Intercultural Novel
Articles > Article · 2013
Authors: Saniye UYSAL ÜNALAN
ZEITSCHRIFT FUR INTERKULTURELLE GERMANISTIK, Journal Indexed in SCI Expanded, International, 2013, vol 4, pp 157-172
Summary
This article examines the very significant role of the love concept in the novel Fire of Love (Liebesbrand; 2008) of Feridun Zaimoglu. Love is not only the main subject of this novel, but also appears as a >third place< (Bhabha), since love is mobilized as a hybrid and intercultural concept that ultimately makes boundaries dubious. Through referring to literary traditions such as the German Romantic period as well to the Divan-Literature, i.e. the classic period of Turkish Literature, this love concept incorporates structures and components of German and Turkish Literature in contemporary German Literature and constitutes in this way a new literary space. As the links between the novel and the German Romantic period have already been established, the article focuses on those elements and structures corresponding with the Divan-Literature. On the basis of the literary and aesthetic remapping of the love concept emerging in Liebesbrand the novel produces a third space evading cultural differences. The novel configures and enriches German Literature through the literary references to Turkish Literature, and the boundaries of German Literature and Culture get expanded.