Abstract
Although largely ignored by Sorbs, The Daughter of the Dragon, written in German by the Sorbian Kerstin Młynkec, received enthusiastic reviews in 2004. The hyperrealism about violence in everyday life in East German orphanages is considered one of the reasons for the novel′s success. This world is compared to the familiar world of the Sorbian Grandmother, albeit with ironic distance. Both the Sorbian view of themselves and particularly that of the professional keepers of Sorbian values are severely criticized. The narrator compares her own subjectively found path to the Sorbs to a collectively shared Sorbian identity full of stereotypes. In its new oxymoronic conception of Sorbian identity, the novel integrates both the Other′s view of the Sorbs as well as their view of themselves. With this novel, at the very latest, calling oneself into question thus becomes a part of Sorbian identity.
© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany