THIS CHAPTER ASSESSES THE SPECIFIC FORMS of cosmopolitanism displayed in the work of seven Turkish German novelists: Renan Demirkan and Akif Pirinçci, who are the most widely read; Saliha Scheinhardt, who has a following among socially concerned, feminist readers; Selim Özdogan, who has a cult following among younger readers; Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Feridun Zaimoglu, who receive the most critical attention and have won prestigious national and international prizes for their work; and Kemal Kurt, who remains relatively unknown, but whose only published novel is a veritable cosmopolitan manifesto.

All Turkish German novelists display cultural affinities that exceed the Turkish German dyad. This is only natural, because all literary cultures are constitutively cosmopolitan, even if they are defined by nationalist ideologies, since all writers engage both national and international traditions. This dynamic is particularly forceful for Turkish German writers for two reasons. First, they have a very limited tradition to draw upon: the first Turkish German novel (or novella), Güney Dal's Wenn Ali die Glocken läuten hört (When Ali Hears the [Church] Bells Ring), was only published in 1979 and the first novel to be written in German, Akif Pirinçci's Tränen sind immer das Ende (It Always Ends in Tears), appeared in 1980. Second, they are drawn to cosmopolitan positions due to the stigmatized, anomalous, and insecure nature of their ascribed identity. Because they are neither simply German nor simply Turkish, many reach beyond the dichotomy of ethnic origins and host culture in order assert a place in the cosmopolitan, global culture. They do so in varied ways that relate to their various genres and the associated expectations of genre-specific readerships.