FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTHERLESSNESS AND LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN THE WORK OF IMMIGRANT POETS BASED ON THE LYRICS OF MASHA KALEKO

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of language and homeland in the lyrics of Masha Kalekko, an important representative of Austrian literature. In it, we briefly touch on the theme of emigration, immigrant literary women, and the life and work of Masha Kaleko.

Specifically, there are not many studies about language as the basis of homeland and identity in Masha Kaleko's work, but in general the issue is relevant and according to researchers, the attitude towards homeland and language is almost typical for female representatives of emigrant literature and reflects the great bitterness and life trauma that happened to them in emigration. For them, the mother tongue remains a defining feature of their identity, even when a person speaks several languages ​​fluently. Even when living in the ancestral land, a person can feel homeless, because the language perceived as native places such a code in a person that he constantly strives for it. This was also the case with Kaleko. He is of Jewish origin, but a German-speaking writer, always in search of his homeland, the homeland that he misses is an icon realized in the German language, despite the immigrant path of his whole life, only German is his native language.

 When discussing the problematic of his lyrics, it is clear that in the author's work, the language appears as a lyrical hero as well as an imaginary homeland. Despite the multilingualism, the author's high assessment of the role of the native language once again emphasizes the opinion established in reality about the combination of language and identity.

The topic of the article is also relevant for modern society, which gives Masha Kaleko a special place in Austrian literature as an author who was expelled from her homeland, forgotten and yet rediscovered. For the article, in addition to finding and familiarizing with existing studies on the subject, we used our own translations of Masha Kaleko's lyrics for the analysis of the author's lyrics.