„so verletzt, so erniedrigt, so elend, so mißhandelt, so verwundbar, so ungeschützt“. Zur Problematik von Identität und Gewalt im Werk Helga M. Novaks

Abstract

The issue of violence towards groups and individuals within every sociopolitical system is one of the main thematic areas in the works of Helga M. Novak. The specificity of her writing on this issue lies in the way she links it with literary presentation of the processes of individual and group identity formation. In her creation of literary characters, who undergo violence and whose identities are influenced by violence, Novak not only presents these experiences as being destructive for an individual or a group but also ascribes to them a specific power which stimulates actions directed at a formation of ever new life models in constantly changing conditions. The problem of discrimination of women and groups embodying cultural, religious, ethnical and national ‚otherness‘ constitutes an extremely significant aspect in the works of Helga Novak. The article encompasses these very issues.