Stereotyping German Turks Cultural Studies Essay

Stereotyping German Turks Cultural Studies EssayAn American, a Chinese a German and a Turk are in a plane. Because of a technical fault the plane is about to crash if non immediately whatever ballast is thrown out. The Chinese opens the door and gets rid of the rice in his al-Qaeda explaining it doesnt matter, we apply too much rice at home. Then the American stands up and throws greenbacks out of the window we nurture way too many of them back home. After a short silence the Turk turns to the German and says Bruder (buddy), dont get any silly ideas.by pointing out their internal representation as victims and unwelcome guest-workers. Meanwhile, wrapped in a humorous aspect this joke distinctly hints at the f wager that prejudices and separates have an immense curve in our daily life. Now the following question arises To what extent do stereotypes affect intercommunal relations?With the mark of answering the question this work will focus on stereotypes, Turks in Germany ar e confronted with, by analyzing the representation of both immigrants with Turkish heritage and native born Germans in books as considerably as in cinema. In order to support the theses it will refer to authors like Arlene Akiko Teroka, Rob Burns, Gke Yurdakuli Y. Michal Bodemann, Johanna Watzginer Tharp and to their works. In addition, it will discuss the social consequences of stereotyping and show how much prejudices and labeling affect our actions towards and treatment of another(prenominal) groups.In order to be able to understand the labeling process the emergence of specific stereotypes one should be well in bring ined about the historical background of the aforesaid nations and their international relationships.In the case of Germany and dud the era after World War II plays a decisive role. Aiming to rebuild the country and furbish up its ruined economy the German giving medi scourion decided to import labor from nearby countries like Turkey. (Yurdakul, 2006) These so called guest-workers were unskilled peasants in search of income, which they were unable to gain in their homeland. This immigration policy of the German government is inextricably linked with the perception of Turkish immigrants in the eyes of German citizens. To be precise, the first stereotype Turks have to cope with is the image of unskilled guest-workers.In order to make this labeling clear a participation with literature and cinema seems adequate at this point. Migrant writings and put downs between 1970s and 1980s were called guest-worker literature or the literature of the effected. (Burns, 2007) They mostly tended to foreground dickens thematic concerns the actuality of the exploited, discriminated and socially excluded Turkish guest-worker finger and the problems of living between two cultures. (Burns, 2007)One causa underlying the above mentioned image and experience of the unlettered and socially excluded Turkish guest-workerr is the novel and have Ganz Unten (Lowest of the Low),. In the film, the writer Gnter Wallraff borrows the identity of a real immigrant, the guest-worker Ali L pointt Sinirlioglu and records his experiences in a variety of dangerous, unsanitary and badly paid jobs. Devoid of both a ain history and a private sphere, Wallraffs Ali has no individual identity, no life beyond the workplace.(Burns, 2007) In the film the immigrant Ali is defined purely in relation to his economic function as a worker. According to the Turkish writer Aysel -zakin, Walraff presents a patronising clichd portrait of the Turk as uneducated, unskilled and basically ignorant, as well as naive oppressed and, hence, ultimately pitiful. (Burns, 2007) Thus Ganz Unten reinforces the stereotype of the Turks as merely unskilled and control guest-workers.This example additionally shows that the stereotype of guest-worker goes hand in hand with the portrayal of German Turks as victims,oppressed by the superior, the German employer. One narrative exampl e that underlies the image of the exploited, helpless guest-worker is the story about the laboratory accomplice Kadir, who falls victim to a nefarious employer a German manager, who supplies him with hormone pills for the stomach cramps that continually purify him.(Burns, 2007) At the end when Kadir grows breasts after the excessive supply of hormone pills he cuts his own breasts with a kitchen knife. This act of self-mutilation serves as a metaphor for German treatment of guest-workers, especially Turks as subhuman beings and for the helpless and suicidal response of a man, who falls victim to the bewildering complexities of urban technological society.(Burns, 2007)Beside the portrayal of being a victim the fact of being regarded as a guest-worker also leads to another stereotype the image of being an outsider. The film 40 m2 Deutschland (40 Square Meters of Germany, 1986), is a very well example to show the Turk, isolated between two cultures. The films location is a flat in H amburg, the new home of Turna, who has been brought over from rural Anatolia to live with her husband, Dursun. Turnas lying-in is to transform this space into a little enclave of Turkish culture, offering Dursun refuge after his work at the factory and safeguardinghis wife from the moral depravity he sees pervading German society. (Burns, 2007) This film demonstrates that Turks tend to distance themselves from the German society and their rules, in order to save their own cultural values. This kind of behavior contributes to the labeling process as an outsider. The Turk is seen as someone, who wants only minimal reach out with German life and deliberately deprives him/herself of social intercourse.This limited contact with the German society and culture even led to the development of a new language-the so-called Gastarbeiterdeutsch (Guest-worker German), a simplified form of German to meet only basic communicative needs (Watzinger Tharp, 2004) a form of German which leads to redu ced or even incorrect input. (Watzinger Tharp, 2004) A new arising form of language among the sec and third generation Turks in Germany, the so called Trkendeutsch, introduces a new stereotype the fact that German Turks are stuck between two cultures, even unable to speak one language properly. This stereotype is clearly reflected in Geierbachs choice of his novels title Bruder, muss Zwiebel und Wasser essen (Brother, have to eat onion and water). This sentence is neither German nor Turkish The content reflects behaviour peculiar to lower class Turks whereas the sentence is completely create verbally in German. Thus, it appears to be rather a mix of two languages, two cultures, and therefore serves as an example to demonstrate the fact that the German Turk, has positioned him/herself between two cultures re importanting culturally torn.However, these are only some of the stereotypes Turks in Germany are confronted with. Still, they can be seen as the main ones. The following abst ract will instantaneously shortly focus on the social consequences of stereotyping and show their effects,which mainly cause social tension and even racial violence.The bad image of the Turks created through stereotyping connected with increasing unemployment rates in Germany led to an aviation of open anti Turkism among Germans. Some even say that former anti Semitism was transformed into open anti Turkism. In short stereotyping led to animosity and aggressive tendencies and increasing violence towards Turks. The Solingen arson attack of 1993 serves as an example of anti foreigner violence in modern Germany, when Neo Nazis set fire to a Turkish familys home.On the Turkish side, however, being constantly stereotyped and mocked resulted in anger and hostility among German Turks. A cartoon published in the German magazine Stern shows a heavily mustached man crawling through a cat hole in a door named European Union, trying to gain entry into Europe. Some imitation Arabic writing appears on top of the cat hole, and a suitcase with a Turkish flag stands next to the man.(Yurdakul, 2006) Some claim that the nose of the Jew is in a flash replaced by the mustache of the Turk and consequently accuse Germans of anti Turkish racism. As a response, associating Turkish concerns with those of the Jews and analyse the Holocaust to the bombings of Turkish houses, the Turkish society has openly begun to attack the Germans, where they are most vulnerable, creating even to a greater extent hostility between both nations.In conclusion, by analyzing the representation of Turks and Germans in literature and cinema, this paper has tried and true to highlight the stereotypes directed against Turks-mainly German Turks, dominating Turkish-German relationships, even until today. After, explaining the historical evolution of stereotypes and the emergence of specific prejudices against Turks, the show has illustrated the social consequences of labeling. As seen in literature an d cinema stereotyping is an element, which dominates relationships between different nations.In a nutshell, the main aim of this paper is to show that stereotyping and labeling are very serious and dangerous social traits, which can have drastic consequences on intercommunal relations fueling emotions like hostility, dislike, anger and even racism, all being traits which should have no place in an enlightened, modern society.