Valerie Popp: “Aber hier war alles anders…” Amerikabilder in der deutschsprachigen Exilliteratur nach 1939 in den USA

This study fills a gap between the considerable body of research into German exile writing between 1933 and 1945 and the even greater number of studies dealing with the theme of America in German-language writing. It focuses on the work of a selection of the 300 plus German-language writers exiled in the United States of America who sought through their literary activity to come to terms with their new environment and their own problematic existence. Questioning the assumption that German-language exile writing rarely engaged with America as a theme and concentrated instead on Europe and European concerns, Popp reveals that, while this was true for the period 1933–1939 and for such ‘greats’ as Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Alfred Döblin and Franz Werfel, there were in fact, from 1939 on, a large number of America texts written by less prominent exiled authors such as Salamon Dembitzer, Friedrich Sally Grosshut, Frederic Morton, Victoria Wolff, Wilhelm Speyer, Otto Schrag and Heinrich Eduard Jacob. The writers studied, most of whom belonged to the ‘second wave’ of emigration between 1938 and 1941, are chosen on the basis of the length of time they spent in America and the extent to which their experience was based on real, direct contact with the country and ist citizens.

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