Intercultural books for children and young adults
1. The seventies: children of guest workers waiting to return home
Renate Welsh: Ülkü, the Strange Girl (1973)
2. The eighties: Assimilation or Integration?
3. The nineties: Feeling uprooted and the quest for identity
4. Strange neighbours in the east and southeast
Renate Welsh: Spinach on Wheels (1991)
Beginning in the seventies, children's books and young adult fiction on the topic 'foreigners' were published in German. A clear division into black and white, good and bad, native and foreign is clearly no longer possible. So these books offer fiction based on reality; they show various patterns of behaviour, focus on different problem areas and thereby help the reader to understand situations and backgrounds. Hopefully this leads to tolerance, solidarity, and mutual cultural respect.
1. The seventies: children of guest workers waiting to return home
The book gives an authentic account of the living conditions and hardships of a family of guest workers in Vienna: limited space, lack of money and, worst of all, the stigma of being different and not accepted that the 12-year-old Ivo experiences. When his mother and his younger brothers and sisters return to their native village on the Dalmatian coast in order to care for their sick mother, Ivo has to keep house for his father and older brothers and cannot go to school any longer. He experiences the unfriendliness of adults as well as the rejection of the children, who laugh at him and avoid contact. Desperate, he attempts to escape, but he ultimately fails.
For a sample of the German original CLICK HERE
Renate Welsh: Ülkü, the Strange Girl (1973)
In this realistic story Renate Welsh tries to describe very carefully the different cultural and economic living conditions of an Austrian and a Turkish family. The heroine of this first-person narrative is the 12-year-old Austrian girl Bärbel. One day the Turkish girl Ülkü joins the class. It becomes obvious how unequally distributed the burden is. The foreign girl could easily integrate into the host country because she is intelligent and diligent, but the family has got different plans (i.e. to return home after half a year or so). What counts, however, is that the two girls lose their initial prejudice and become friends.
2. The eighties: Assimilation or Integration?
Ilse Viktoria Bösze: Birthday in the Attic (1983)
A 12-year-old Austrian boy, whose father is dead, finds emotional warmth in the family of a Turkish classmate. In the course of the story, his mother and the suspicious neighbours learn to appreciate the Turkish families that live in the same block of flats, and so there is a positive ending.
For a sample of the German original CLICK HERE
Christine Nöstlinger: That's Susi (1988)
This is a critical view on the integration of immigrant children. In one chapter a number of prejudices come up, causes for the rejection of foreigners are mentioned, and the reader is forced into participating in intercultural thinking. Taking sides is unavoidable. The character of Ali, a Turkish child, makes us see the painful experiences of an outsider. What is special about this book, is that despite the serious subject matter there is room for cheerfulness, fun, and all kind of pranks. It takes courage to solve the problems, but life in a multicultural society promises to be anything but boring.
For a sample of the German original CLICK HERE
3. The nineties: Feeling uprooted and the quest for identity
In 1990 Yasmin, a novel for girls, was published. The author, Edith Thabet, was born in Vienna and is married to an immigrant. So she has first-hand knowledge of being positioned between two cultures. The book tells the story of a 12-year-old girl, whose mother is Viennese and whose father is Egyptian. This man strives hard for acknowledgement of his status as Austrian citizen. For his daughter's sake, he opts for far-reaching assimilation as regards language and working conditions, but he wants to retain his own values and way of living. His daughter Yasmin suffers from the social, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions and is searching for an identity of her own.
The author claims that living in a multicultural community means enrichment for all individuals concerned. The impulses, however, come from the family trying to integrate, whereas the contribution of the local population is modest. Foreign customs, which might seem strange and absurdly out of context, are illustrated. In Yasmin the two cultures are presented as equal as they originated in father and mother and live on in the child.
In the final episode all the people living in this block of flats join in a couscous party with Arabian music. So at least some elements of the foreign culture are no longer rejected, and mutual acceptance is growing.
For a sample of the German original CLICK HERE
4. Strange neighbours in the east and southeast
The fall of the iron curtain, the changes in former Eastern bloc countries, and the dissolution of former Yugoslavia had its repercussions in Austrian literature for children and young adults.
In 1992 a UNICEF anthology, The Sun Rises in the East, was published. Sixteen authors from former Eastern bloc countries try through their short stories to make the neighbours curious about life on the other side of the border.
Renate Welsh: Spinach on Wheels (1991)
In 1991 Renate Welsh portrays the dilemma of refugee children in her book. The Russian girl Maria and her family are seen as uprooted and painfully not at home anywhere in this world. The reader is confronted with existential questions of a girl, and he/she is called upon to find answers and make his own contribution towards a better world.
For a sample of the German original CLICK HERE
Literature
Adorno, Theodor W.: Ästhetische Theorie. Frankfurt/Main 1970
Essinger, Helmiut: Interkulturelle Pädagogik. Versuch einer Standortbestimmung. In: Bizim Almanca 15 (1986), S. 14
Essinger, Helmut: Zur interkulturellen Arbeit in Schule und Gemeinwesen. Königstein/Ts 1981
Kagerer, Hildburg: Das Fremde hört nicht auf. In: JuLit. Informationen 2 (1992), S. 44ff.
Kaminski, Winfred: Einführung in die Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Literarische Phantasie und gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeit. Weinheim-München 21989
Katholische Akademie Hamburg (Hg): Almanach zur österreichischen Kinderkultur. Hamburg 1991
Mattenklott, Gundel: Fremde Kinder im Kinderbuch. In: JuLit. Informationen 2 (1992), S. 85
Ulrich, Anna Katharina: Im andern Land. In: Schweizer Jugendbuchinstitut Zürich (Hg): Kinder- und Jugendbücher als Verständigungshilfe zwischen ausländischen und Schweizer Kindern. Zürich 1986, S. 7
Literary Texts
Beyerl, Beppo: Eckhausgeschichten. Wien 1992
Bösze, Ilse Viktoria: Geburtstag auf dem Dachboden. Wien 1983
Gruber, Maria: Esras abenteuerliche Reise auf den blauen Planeten. Wien 1992
Nöstlinger, Christine: Echt Susi. Wien 1988
Österreichisches Komitee für UNICEF und das Internationale Institut für Jugendliteratur und Leseforschung (Hg.): Im Osten geht die Sonne auf. Wien 1992
Pellert, Wilhelm: Ayana und das goldene Tor. Wien 1992
Szyszkowitz, Gerald: Auf der anderen Seite. Wien 1990
Szyszkowitz, Gerald: Moritz und Natalie. Wien 1991
Thabet, Edith: Yasmin. Wien 1990
Welsh, Renate: Spinat auf Rädern. Innsbruck 1991
Welsh, Renate: Ülkü, das fremde Mädchen. Wien 1973
Wippersberg, Walter J. M.: Fluchtversuch. Innsbruck 1973
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