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This article aims to shed light on the themes of limitlessness, identity and conflicts of integration in Khuê Pham’s novel ‘Wo auch immer ihr seid’ (2021). It examines border phenomena such as experiences of foreignness, alienation, exclusion, and marginalization. Concepts of hybridity and rhizomatics are also taken into account in the analysis. In contrast to representatives of the generation of newcomers, Khuê Pham belongs to the generation of children of newcomers who were born in Germany, came into contact with the culture there from an early age, and grew up in the era of hyperculturality, i.e., the era of seemingly unlimited possibilities. The aforementioned aspects influence the process of identity formation and cause it to take place differently than for representatives of the generation of those who have arrived.

In relation to the theme of the present issue, this article attempts to show that sacrifice is at the heart of Michel Houellebecq’s Serotonin on an individual, as well as on a collective level. As always ex negativo, meaning the protagonist fails in sacrificing the Son on the cross, Houellebecq shows that the anamnesis of mortality could redeem man individually and also lead to a more social, fair, and sustainable economy on a political level.

This essay analyzes the causes and consequences of migration using the example of Dimitré Dinev’s novel Engelszungen and examines in particular the significance of transgression for the development of the protagonists. It will be shown that the mere topographical crossing of a border makes less of a difference in the lives of migrants than the associated transition to a foreign language and a different political and social system. At the same time, however, the personal predispositions before migration prove to be decisive for life afterward, which means that the migration process as such can actually be seen as a step in the development of the individuals.

The Jewish „Prague German“ author, Lenka Reinerová (1916–2008) has been called „Kafka’s last living heir.“ Despite this esteemed heritage, there are some who doubt the value, literary or otherwise, of her prose. Contemporary statistics on refugees which draw explicit comparisons to the global situation of refugees after World War II, however, compel us to read many of Reinerová’s works, including the two analyzed in this article, Grenze geschlossen (1956/8) and Alle Farben der Sonne und der Nacht (2003), in a new light. Literary critics from the fields of Critical Refugee Studies (CRS) and Border Studies focus attention on the border experiences of marginalized and vulnerable groups. In these two works, the first-person narrator, a committed Communist, is confronted by hard boundaries – in the form of national borders, prison walls, and ideological borders – which are then dissolved. Building a bridge to Reinerovás work in this way can speak in valuable ways to contemporary authors writing about borders and border poetics. Instead of succumbing to a permanent suspicion of boundaries, Reinerová demonstrates that boundarylessness must be contained. With her seemingly nostalgic appeal to the past, she reminds the reader that human beings are part of traditions of thought and action, battered though these traditions may be, some of which need to be rescued and renewed.

The paper focuses on the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on language and the role of language in shaping new corona-related realities using the example of everyday life in Vienna during the pandemic and the Viennese German. Particular attention is paid to the use of dialectal lexis in advertising slogans that call for compliance with pandemic rules, vaccinations or boosters. Corona neologisms, stylistic figures, phraseologisms and
expressive lexis, which are increasingly used in times of crisis, are presented, and the functions of dialectal lexis and the role of humor are discussed.

he study analyses both cross-linguistic and intralingual influence in reading comprehension in German as L3 in four language combinations. As the results show, various comprehension errors were observed, which can be attributed to the L1, the L2, the L3, two languages at the same time, as well as inference from context. This confirms that the languages in the multilingual mental lexicon are interconnected and that inter­actions between them influence reading comprehension.

This article is a review of Alexander Happ’s dissertation, published in the Sprache und Wissen publishing series. The article outlines the main research objectives, questions, and methodologies, situating the research within the broader context of similar discourse studies. The reviewer provides a detailed summary of the content of each chapter, highlighting the key observations that emerged from the study. Notably, the reviewer emphasizes the high level of analytical depth demonstrated in the dissertation (which involved the examination of over 2,700 texts from the period spanning 1990 to 2015) and commends the clarity and innovative approach employed in the research. Overall, the reviewer characterizes the dissertation as a model analysis of public discourse, underscoring its significant contributions to the field.