Fremdbegegnungen: Alterität in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur Einleitung zum Themenschwerpunkt

If one assumes the encounter with others as an elementary and universal anthropological experience and if one understands it as an integral part of social processes and the formation of cultural identity, it turns out to be a highly topical topic. In a series of conversations that the editors conducted between 2019 and 2021 during a tense time marked by Covid-19, mass quarantine ('lockdown') and the associated social problems, the topic of encounters with strangers proved to be an intellectual challenge. Particularly in view of the precarious socio-political situation such as the so-called refugee crisis and its consequences, the strengthening of right-wing populism and growing xenophobia, the increasing intolerance towards foreigners, as well as the use of right-wing populist rhetoric and the resulting uncertainty among the population, very elementary ones arose again Questions that are closely related to this topic: How should one meet the stranger, how should one accept it and deal with diversity? How do you behave in the face of "foreign infiltration" and the associated changes and challenges in society? We took these questions as an opportunity to plan the international conference Foreign Encounters: Alterity and German-language Contemporary Literature, which then took place in June 2021 at the University of Ljubljana and partly via video link, and the results of which are collected in the present volume in a representative selection and by two further articles on the subject (Lénárt, Kuzminykh) are added.