Nation – Migration. Philosophische, linguistische und literarische Erkundungen

Abstract

One of the nation’s fundamental characteristics is the principle of exclusion. It lays claim to a territory it regards as its natural right, within which it realises itself in an ongoing process, whilst its self-determined criteria of identity and belonging exclude everything that retains not belong—both within and outside the national territory—as foreign. Migration is fundamentally at odds with this, as it crosses such boundaries at every level. The papers presented at the ‘Nation-Migration’ conference (Naples, 29 September–1 October 2023) address this issue in relation to German-speaking culture from philosophical, linguistic and, above all, literary-historical perspectives, , spanning from Romanticism through the period of Nazi fascism, Modernism, Postmodernism, the fall of the Wall and the communist dictatorships, up to the right wing extremist movements in contemporary Germany.