Temeswar und das Banat als multiethnischer Raum:

Annäherung an eine Region anhand von Beispielen der rumänischen, ungarischen und deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur

Abstract

Timișoara is a significant point in the symbolic space of the Banats, and indeed all of Romania, already because this multi-ethnic city is where the 1989 revolution began. In my contribution, I would like to present the images that are circulating today in the high culture and everyday culture of the city. It should be briefly outlined how these images reflect the political, social, and economic tensions. Among the television series, I will highlight the first independent Romanian HBO production, Hackerville, which was created in 2018 and had Timișoara as its setting, playing an important role in the Cultural Capital project.

Among the literary works to be presented, the texts of various native language writers – Herta Müller, Radu Pavel Gheo, Andrea Tompa – should demonstrate the transnational and translocal character of the city; that diversity whose mosaic pieces come together to form the whole picture.

A common characteristic of the audiovisual and literary content is the contradictory elements in the fictional self-presentation of the city: the lengthy processing of the legacy of the socialist era, the problems of the subsequent forced modernization, tensions in the daily lives of Romanian, Hungarian, and Banat German residents, the rapidly growing crime rate, differences in mentality regarding gender roles, architectural heritage, globalization, and the associated urban development.