Abenteuer Mission

Lebensgeschichten von Missionarinnen als Beitrag zur expatriate-Forschung

Abstract

The article examines life stories of Catholic missionary sisters. By analysing them within three social and geographical spaces (the ‘space of social background’, the institutional ‘convent space’ and the ‘mission space’), different narrative aspects are being identified. The self-presentations of the missionary women, who were sent to the ‘mission space’ in the decades after 1945, can be interpreted as tales of a „controlled adventure“. Missionary societies are thus considered as transnational ‘companies’ which, much like business companies, keep up a transnational network of members sent abroad. The narrations of missionary sisters follow classical scripts of heroism and adventure tales, as it has already been shown for the life stories of modern business expatriates. Only one aspect turns out to be remarkable different: Catholic missionary sisters of the congregation, studied in this article, don’t come back home, when they retire.