«Arrivato, ma dove?». La riscoperta dell'esilio in Ursula Krechel

Abstract

The article analyzes two recent successful novels by Ursula Krechel that return to the recent German past: Shanghai Far from Where, 2008 (extracts published in: “The Hudson Review”, spring 2015, vol. 68 , I, pp. 39-60) and Regional Court, 2012, which won an important German book prize. In both postmodern texts the author investigates the exile of German speaking Jews in the Chinese metropolis (Shanghai) and the difficulties of returning Jews immediately after the war to Germany where they find incomprehension, rejection and all sorts of bureaucratic obstacles. For those who have been in exile there is no real return even after the end of the war (Regional Court).