German Orientalism(s) and Transculturality Between Past and Present with Some Reflections on the Works of Yōko Tawada and Adolf Muschg

It is common knowledge that the discourse on Orientalism developed by Edward Said (1978) does not include the perception of the Asiatic Other in German-speaking countries. As a result, we are left with a series of unanswered questions related to the importance of the construction of Asiatic imagery in this part of Europe. German Orientalism – declined in the plural by Kontje (2004), because of its complexity – has thus been the focus of various investigative attempts and approaches that study its characteristics in light of the peculiarities of the German-speaking universe, characterised by the presence of the German Empire and the Habsburg Empire. In more recent times, several studies have explored the literary representation of the relationships between German-speaking countries and the East, drawing on the concepts of transculturality and cultural hybridity (Welsch 1992; Shen/Rosenstock 2014; Zhang 2017). These studies provide a methodological framework suited to the analysis of literary works that portray the relation between East and West in ways that seek to transcend their traditional dichotomy, interpreting it instead through the lens of complementary elements within a global culture. In this paper, the developmental stages of German Orientalism are briefly reviewed with regard to the image of China and Japan in German-language literature. If at the end of the 19th century German Orientalism was influenced by the concrete or only vague colonial ambitions of the German and Habsburg empires, the 20th century witnessed the process of its deconstruction thanks to the work of authors who made the imaginative projection of the Asian Other an occasion for ironic and irreverent reflection. An analysis of the same historical period in light of the concept of transculturality is also recalled and extended to more recent literature in which the representation of the East is often reinterpreted through a hybrid and hybridizing dimension that seeks to move beyond the dichotomous division between West and East in favour of mutual influence. The study concludes with a proposed analysis of the works of Adolf Muschg and Yōko Tawada – two authors who, despite their significant differences, depict a reality characterised by metamorphosis and reciprocal contamination, yet one that remains open to reflections still connected to the notion of colonial and postcolonial power relations.