Eropa sebagai Ruang Ketiga dalam Dua Novel Jerman Kontemporer Bergenre Familienroman: Katzenberge dan Das achte Leben (Für Brilka)

Abstract

This article explores several ideas about Europe as a third space as represented in contemporary German literature, particularly within the genre of Familienroman (family novel). By focusing on two novels, Katzenberge by Sabrina Janesch (2010) and Das achte Leben (Für Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili (2014), this article demonstrates how Europe has emerged as a central issue in Familienroman narratives over the past decades. By adopting the concept of thirdspace developed by the geographer Edward Soja (1996) as its main theoretical framework, this study argues that the intergenerational family narratives presented in these works can be read as spaces of postmemory that reconstruct European history. These narratives not only re-present the experiences of previous generations but also convey the traces of war atrocities-oppression, and political violence, along with their impact on individuals, families, and subsequent generations. Furthermore, this article demonstrates that spaces traditionally considered marginal appear to transcend spatial and temporal boundaries and are likely to gain increasing significance in future discussions of Europe.