Postkolonialismus in den Regionalwissenschaften. Prußen-Motive in der Literatur

Abstract

The focus of the literary post-colonial discourse in this article is Claudius Crönert’s novel on Herkus Monte “Die Herren der Schwerter”, published in 2011, which distances itself from the old Prussian topoi and, instead, creates a new post-colonial reality. The article deals with the problem of postcolonialism and its absence in the context of Prussian research. As a theory, postcolonialism is still shaped by Eurocentric notions of a foreign discourse that mostly focuses on former colonies in far-flung parts of the world, which is illustrated here by a text by Walter Benjamin. The multi-coded past of Prussia is discussed in my contribution on the basis of the change from colonial discourse to post-colonial discourse. The reception of the pre-colonial times of the Baltic tribes is presented in the journal Adrastea on the basis of Herder’s latest work, specifically his reflections on the ‘ancestors’ of Prussia.