The symbolism of water in emine sevgi Özdamar's literature

Abstract

Emine Sevgi Özdamar (born 1946 in Malatya/Türkiye), one of the most prominent representatives of German-Turkish literature in the contemporary German speaking literature, establishes in her Istanbul-Berlin trilogy The Sun On a Halfway an intercultural dialogue between Türkiye and Germany, between two cultures, two traditions and two languages. She creates a “third space” by using the model of aesthetic and literary hybridisation and by literally translating idioms, phrases, proverbs and fairy tales from her mother tongue Turkish into German. In the novels Life is a Caravanserai Has Two Doors I Came in One I Went out the Other, The Bridge of the Golden Horn and Strange Stars Stare at the Earth, the first person female narrator has woven her life story from the time before her birth till her early thirties. In her life between Malatya, Istanbul and Berlin, between patriarchal society, tradition, religion and social conventions, on the one hand, and the modernity of the West on the other, the motif of water plays a significant role. When talking about the river (e.g. about the Euphrates) and the seas (Aegean Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn), about the rain or ritual wash, the nameless heroine sees the water as a mythical, religious and political sign in its role as blessing, healing, punishment, friendship and hostility, homeland and otherness. Through the water in myth, religion and socio-political reality Özdamar writes about a young Turkish woman in her search for identity between two worlds, two traditions and cultures.