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C U LT U R E & T H E M E D I A
Turkish Saz Rock to American Hip Hop and
years now they have been among the most
even Techno, blends with other strands or
successful authors writing in German. Their
electronic elements that are considered “typ-
books, which reflect among other things on
ically German”. As in other countries, Rap is a
their experiences with their Iranian, Russian
point of identification for young people from
and Turkish backgrounds, are eagerly read
migrant families, with languages often blur-
and their works transport the specific themes
ring in the process.
and experiences of migration into the heart
of society, where they are regularly discussed.
Post-migrant themes play a key role in
contemporary literature
The same is true of films by directors Fatih
Akin or Bora Dagtekin, who playfully have
There are countless important authors with
the different milieus so typical of Germany
migrant backgrounds such as Navid Kermani,
today, and the clichéd notions the various
who in 2015 won one of Germany’s most il-
groups have of one another collide. The im-
lustrious cultural prizes, the Peace Prize of
age of Germany that this creates, reflected at
the German Book Trade, and is known both
countless different levels, is at times chaotic
for his fiction and for his books on religious
and contradictory, but always colourful. So-
tolerance, or Katja Petrowskaya, Sherko Fa-
ciety needs to learn to tolerate these ambival-
tah, Nino Haratischwili, Saša Stanišić, Feri-
ences and tensions; culture shows this and
dun Zaimoglu or Alina Bronsky, to mention
provides an ideal venue for a peaceful debate
but a few. Indeed, it is fair to say that for many
on these conflicts. Post-migrant Germany is
German-Iranian writer Navid Kermani won the 2015 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade