Die ‚newcomerin‘ alina bronsky im kontext der russisch-deutschen gegenwartsliteratur und ihre rezeption im deutschen feuilleton

This contribution presents the author Alina Bronsky and examines the role and
significance of Russian culture in her works, focusing on both their production and their reception. To this end, the first part of the study analyzes Bronsky’s debut novel, Scherbenpark (2008; “Broken Glass Park”), and places it in relation to the texts of other (male and female) authors of Russian origin. It can be observed that Scherbenpark – and this holds true, as well, for Bronsky’s second novel, Die schärfsten Gerichte der tatarischen Küche (2010; “The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine”) – avails itself of similar subject material as the texts of other Russian-German authors (e.g. family, identity, migration and origin), but sets a new emphasis. While Bronsky does trace the difficult identity development of an adolescent girl from an immigrant background, questions of national and cultural identity, central to the production of other authors, are markedly less prominent in hers. All the same, these latter aspects of her works are the ones generally highlighted
by German literary journalism – and that is the focus of the second part of this
contribution. The examination of a part of the reception documents discussing
Bronsky’s works shows the strategies by which the author is marketed to the public and the aspects that literary reviews in prominent German periodicals choose to focus on – the foreign and Russian-connoted exotic, which are, however, as the first part of the analysis reveals, not central to her texts.

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Alina Bronsky ,

Russian-German literature ,

intercultural studies ,