Fragments and shards in Die Prärie, by Zafer ?enocak

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7917.2014v19n2p24

This article wants to reflect on the text Die Prärie ('The Prairie'), written in 1997 by Zafer ?enocak. The difficulty to find a genre label for this work shows its central topic: the fragmentation of the existential experience and of the process of perception. With this focus in mind, the analysis is concerned with the problems of belonging, meaningfulness as well as the organisation of the narrative and its fragmentation as shown in the life of the 35-year-old main character of Turkish origin and living in Germany called Sascha. In his fragmented sense of belonging, he discusses his position between different cultural spheres, especially the narration of nation. In the fragmentation of meaningfulness, teleological principles to obtain existential finality are questioned, including the concept of love as a category of this discourse. Finally, the fragmented organisation of the narrative, with its different diegetic spheres and its quotations, apparently aim to bewilder the reader and call his/her attention to the major conflict, the inner struggles.