Hate Speech against occupation children.

A narrative-ethical analysis of Gerta Hartl, Kleines Herz – Weite Welt [Little Heart – Wide World], Hans-Georg Noack, Hautfarbe Nebensache [Skin colour side issue] and Irmela Brender, Der dunkle Spiegel oder die nötige Freundlichkeit [The dark mirror or the necessary friendliness]

Authors

  • Jörg Meibauer

Keywords:

Hate Speech, narrative ethics, pejoration, occupation children, post-war culture, racism, young adult novel

Abstract

The term occupation children (Germ. Besatzungskinder) refers to children whose fathers were soldiers serving in the allied forces in World War II. As a subset of these children, mixed-raced children (in German called Mischlingskinder at the time) refers to children with a white German mother and a black GI father. In post-war Austria and Germany, these children were subject to poor treatment and condemnation, but also compassion and care. The young adult novels by Gerta Hartl, Kleines Herz – Weite Welt [Little Heart – Wide World] (1958), Hans-Georg Noack, Hautfarbe Nebensache [Skin colour side issue] (1960) and Irmela Brender, Der dunkle Spiegel oder die nötige Freundlichkeit [The dark mirror or the necessary friendliness] (1963) convey an anti-racist ethics. They employ several narrative strategies to point out the denigration of the protagonists Doris, Jonny, and Manuela. One of these strategies consists in addressing them by using pejoratives and ethnic slurs. These narrative strategies are best captured in a narrative ethics framework. 

Author Biography

Jörg Meibauer

Jörg Meibauer ist emeritierter Professor für Sprachwissenschaft des Deutschen an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Derzeitige Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Lügen und Täuschen, Hassrede und Pejoration sowie Sprache und Kinderliteratur. Zuletzt erschienen sind The Oxford Handbook of Lying, ed. Jörg Meibauer (2019), Sprache und Bullshit (2020) und Pragmatikerwerb und Kinderliteratur, hg. Kristin Börjesson und Jörg Meibauer (2021) 

Published

2022-03-29