La figura del Gastarbeiter nella letteratura tedesca contemporanea

This article focuses on the image of the Gastarbeiter in contemporary German literature. After a short historical reenactment on migrations in the Federal Republic of Germany during the second half of the Twentieth Century, the article analyses some literary works written by German authors dealing with the Gastarbeiter and their presence in German society, where are often considered marginal social groups. After, literary works written by Gastarbeiters are taken into account. Within this kind of literature, the scholar and writer Carmine Chiellino has identified five voices, characterized by the particular linguistic usages, the generation, the topics covered, and others. In this article it is also assumed the emergence of a sixth voice belonging to a new generation of authors of foreign origins who adopted German as written language, who dealt with different topics and became advocates of an intercultural literature.