"mit meiner auf die zunge geklebten deutsche sprache": Literarische Mehrsprachigkeit und Identitäts(de-)konstruktion in Katja Petrowskajas Vielleicht Esther

The literary production by authors of non-German-speaking origin has been the focus of linguistic interest for several decades. Linguistic research focuses, on the one hand, on questions of language contact and, on the other hand, on the way in which authors place their personal multilingualism at the centre of their literary work and at the same time use it as a means and subject of their narrative. For most authors, multilingualism mainly manifests itself in the form of language reflection, namely as autobiographically staged reflection on their own perception of language and on the expressive potential of the German language as an indispensable means of their literary activity. In their works, multilingualism mainly manifests itself in the form of language reflection, namely as an autobiographically staged reflection on her own perception of language and on the expressive potential of the German language as an indispensable means of their literary activity. In order to illustrate the phenomenon using a concrete example, this paper will analyse the representation of individual experiences of multilingualism in the novel Vielleicht Esther. Geschichten (2014) by Katja Petrowskaja. In this respect two particularly aspects will be examined: the significance of German for the author in the process of defining her new identity and the associated cultural localisation in the German-speaking world, and the effects of the use of her ‘foreign’ German language on her writing and memory process.