<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Olga Grjasnowa’s debut novel The Russian Is One Who Loves Birch Trees, revolving around themes such as national and linguistic boundaries, borderline transgressions and border crossings, the sense of home and the sense of alienation and the search for one’s own identity in the face of a life in the threshold of cultures. Using the example of a young woman who has emigrated from Azerbaijan, who was traumatized as a child, and who is trained as an interpreter in Germany, the article explores subjects such as loneliness, identity, limitations and hunger for language. By making interpreting her profession, the figure solidifies the leap from one culture to the next as a pattern of action and acts transculturally between different spaces. She finds access to marginalized groups, she has ambivalent erotic experiences with men as well as with women, which reflects her cultural indecision.</p>
</abstract>

Olga Grjasnowa’s debut novel The Russian Is One Who Loves Birch Trees, revolving around themes such as national and linguistic boundaries, borderline transgressions and border crossings, the sense of home and the sense of alienation and the search for one’s own identity in the face of a life in the threshold of cultures. Using the example of a young woman who has emigrated from Azerbaijan, who was traumatized as a child, and who is trained as an interpreter in Germany, the article explores subjects such as loneliness, identity, limitations and hunger for language. By making interpreting her profession, the figure solidifies the leap from one culture to the next as a pattern of action and acts transculturally between different spaces. She finds access to marginalized groups, she has ambivalent erotic experiences with men as well as with women, which reflects her cultural indecision.

Sprachnomaden: Mehrsprachigkeit am Beispiel von Olga Grjasnowas Roman: <italic>Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt</italic>

Germanistische Beiträge

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sprachnomaden: Mehrsprachigkeit am Beispiel von Olga Grjasnowas Roman: 

Olga Grjasnowa’s debut novel The Russian Is One Who Loves Birch Trees, revolving around themes such as national and linguistic boundaries, borderline...

Sprachnomaden: Mehrsprachigkeit am Beispiel von Olga Grjasnowas Roman: Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt

Published Online: Feb 01, 2020

Page range: 13 - 27

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gb-2019-0017

Keywords
Linguistic boundaries, border crossings, home feeling, strangeness, identity and trauma

© 2019 Grazziella Predoiu, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sprachnomaden: Mehrsprachigkeit am Beispiel von Olga Grjasnowas Roman: Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt

Published Online: Feb 01, 2020

Page range: 13 - 27

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gb-2019-0017

KeywordsLinguistic boundaries, border crossings, home feeling, strangeness, identity and trauma

© 2019 Grazziella Predoiu, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Linguistic boundaries, border crossings, home feeling, strangeness, identity and trauma