Nazli Nikjamal PhD

The Conceptualisation of Heimat in the Work of German Authors of Iranian Origin

This thesis examines the notion of Heimat in the literary production of two German authors of Iranian origin, Navid Kermani and SAID. It presents a methodological challenge to the existing approaches to this type of literature, which have tended to characterise it as, in one way or another, ‘hyphenated’, thus e.g. as ‘German-Iranian’ literature in our case. Indeed, existing models of analysis have been placing this literature in discourses that connect with ‘Orientalism’ and ‘occidental Universalism’ and in so doing conform to western traditions of a global universality thesis, which ultimately, and often contrary to the scholars’ own best intentions, ‘orientalise’ this literature and its authors. This thesis therefore proposes to study the chosen authors on a case by case basis rather than through the lens of an all-encompassing theoretical model. 

To enable the proposed case by case analysis, the thesis first elaborates on the evolution, during the last ca. 250 years, of both, the German concept of Heimat and its Iranian equivalent, Vatan, demonstrating that these Modern notions of collective identity evolved over time within a framework of remarkable German-Iranian conceptual interplay, if not utter interdependence. 

Based on this the thesis arrives at the conclusion that SAIDs conception of Heimat for all the author’s rejection of any form of nationalism remains within the boundaries of universalistic worldviews that tend to separate as firmly distinct, ‘Orient’ and ‘Occident’. However, Kermani’s concept of Heimat completely transcends any such antagonistic juxtapositions and thus this thesis provides a close reading of his unique and integrative approach to the ‘East’/‘West’ nexus by employing a comparative methodology that I have termed ‘cultural translation’.