Mehrsprachige Texte in der "deutschsprachigen" Literatur

Multilingual texts are not a marginal phenomenon in literature, both in the present and in the past. Even in the corpus usually referred to as 'German-language literature', there are numerous examples of multilingual works, although these do not belong exclusively to that literature which is subsumed under the term 'migration literature'. According to Mikhail M. Bakhtin, the term polyglossia refers not only to different languages, for example Turkish/German, Croatian/German, in text structures, but also to different language varieties (e.g. in José F. A. Oliver: German/Spanish and Alemannic, or in Dörte Hansen: German/Plat German). This inner multilingualism of the texts causes the languages to enter into dialogue with each other and transfer processes to take place. In addition, this textual language contact also has quite different, significant effects, for example, it can produce changes of perspective (heteroglot moments), create a distance to the languages, generate playful, subversive and comic moments, use polyvalent meanings - in short, multilingualism creates upheavals that aim to de-automate language and can thus have a critical function. At the same time, multilingual texts bring the materiality of language to the fore, with the role of the body in language production evoking immediacy. In this section, we explore the multifaceted phenomenon of multilingualism in German-language literature. On the one hand, theoretical approaches to multilingual literature are discussed, as well as the question of the possibility of (literary) recording forms and functions of literary multilingualism. Using concrete examples of texts, we also explore the question of which literary-theoretical and linguistic criteria enable a deeper understanding of polyglot, dialogical literature, which can be used to describe the specificity of this literature more precisely.