Chapter 12 The Faces of a New Transnational Swiss Nation
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Abstract
Switzerland has been an immigration country for more than 100 years. Writers with migrant backgrounds who write in German or French first received public attention in the 1980s. They have become more numerous and more visible since 2000, with some receiving important literary prizes. Swiss literary scholarship has reacted hesitantly to this new writing. The first research initiatives go back to international conferences and publications, more often than not held and published in German than in French. Since concepts and approaches were adopted from related studies in Germany and France, research initially developed differently in the two languages. After 2000, important impulses came from Anglo-Saxon postcolonialism. Research has since turned to issues of hybridisation and universalisation in texts written in both German and French. Nevertheless, Swiss academia has not yet come to regard the fact that literatures in Switzerland have become transcultural as an opportunity for moving beyond traditional academic boundaries.