This article, a prologue to the special issue ‘Memory Worlds: Reframing Time and the Past’, is a follow-up to the plenary session ‘Connecting Memory Traditions around the World’, organised by the authors in the Third Annual Conference of the Memory Studies Association held in Madrid (2019). Elaborating on the work of critical physicists such as Rovelli and Barad, it calls into question hegemonic conceptions of linear time and the past in two ways. First, by bringing in crucial concepts elaborated in the field of memory studies that anticipate, support or may accommodate this claim. Secondly, by summoning social anthropology to the debate, as a field where subaltern epistemologies of time and the past have become a crucial area of research in the last decades. The article calls for the broadening of the Memory Studies agenda in order to move beyond implicit well-established conceptions of linear time that may obscure or obliterate alternate epistemologies, usually dwelling in the margins.

Sibylle Berg’s novel GRM: Brainfuck (2019) deals with profound structural changes that are directly linked to the growing digitalization and datafication of our world. Together with a strong neo-liberalism, this has provoked severe grievances, which have in turn led to important migratory movements. Berg lays this situation out thanks to the characters of the novel ‐ most of them are migrants or have a migrant background. They have experienced different kinds of discrimination and social exclusion that hinder their integration into the host society. The frustrated yearning of many migrants for recognition interestingly becomes apparent in the lack of opportunities for self-representation through digital media, which are described as powerful tools that reinforce and (re-)produce stigmatizing discourses. In addition, the novel shows how mass datafication allows the almost complete surveillance of all citizens. Nevertheless, the main characters in the novel try to resist this total control by choosing a different kind of digital diaspora, which means a retreat to an exclusively analogue life ‐ an impossible endeavour.

Zusammenfassung. Die Medien werden seit Monaten in fast ganz[en] "Der Mensch wird erst am Du zum Ichˮ. The Construction of Identity and Alterity in Jenny Erpenbeck's Novel Gehen, ging, gegangen Abstract. Mass media have been dominated by the migrant crisis for months. Also Jenny Erpenbeck's novel Gehen, ging, gegangen treats this topic, but not just as a reaction to its growing media exposure. She rather raises the question, who were these people, before they became migrants. What takes center stage is the construction of the refugees' identity but also of the people's identity in Europe, where the migrants arrive. In this context, Germany becomes the contact zone between 'the otherʼ and 'the selfʼ, between identity and alterity. Nonetheless, 'the otherʼ is not presented here as the dichotomic counterpart but as an essential ingredient of this 'selfʼ, as Adorno had stated. Apart from this issue, the importance of narration for the construction of both the individual and the collective identity will be analyzed, since especially collective identities can be understood as a rhetoric process. In this context, myths are often used for the creation and stabilization of identity. Keywords: Identity; Alterity; Narrative Identity; Jenny Erpenbeck. Rev. filol. alem. 25, 2017: 181-200 [es] "Der Mensch wird erst am Du zum Ich". La construcción de identidad y alteridad en la novela Gehen, ging, gegangen de Jenny ErpenbeckResumen. Los medios de comunicación se ven dominados hace meses en casi toda Europa por la crisis migratoria. También la novela Gehen, ging, gegangen de Jenny Erpenbeck trata la temática, pero no como una simple reacción a su presencia en los medios. A ella le inquieta más la pregunta cómo eran estas personas antes de convertirse en refugiados. Por lo tanto, las construcciones de identidad de los refugiados, pero también de los europeos, son el centro de interés. En este caso Alemania se convierte en el espacio de contacto entre lo foráneo y lo propio, entre identidad y alteridad. No obstante, no se contrapone 'el otro' al yo de manera dicotómica, sino el 'no-yo' es algo preexistente al yo como lo constató ya Adorno y se convierte por lo tanto, en una parte constitutiva de la propia identidad. Aparte de esta situación se analiza también la importancia de la narración para construcciones de identidades tanto individuales como colectivas, ya que especialmente la identidad colectiva puede ser interpretada como proceso retórico. Para ello se recurre a menudo a mitos para crear y afianzar construcciones de identidad. Palabras clave: Identidad; alteridad; identidad narrativa; Jenny Erpenbeck. Inhaltsverzeichnis

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