Writing this Ph.D. was one of the most psychologically challenging and exhausting activities of my life. For at-least, almost four years I was completely out of my depths, extremely challenged by the task of researching for my project in a third language and producing an honest and authentic piece of work in my second language. However, I have used this opportunity to ask some big questions, such as what role can theatre and literature play in advancing cultural dialogues between Muslims and non-Muslims in European societies? Together with 25 high-school students, the majority of whom were from a Turkish-German background, the research has generated some fascinating results.
Before venturing out into the field, I spent a year reading and interpreting the text and created drama-based activities that focused on separate themes in the text. I then spent at-least nine months teaching and performing the whole play in two different classrooms in Berlin. I could not have taught this without the help of my two wonderful research aides, Sarah de Monchy and Sarah Nassabieh. Once we were in the class-rooms the students easily managed to impress us with their rendition of Faust, Mephisto, and Gretchen. For those, who are unfamiliar with the text, Goethe’s masterpiece is an excellent choice for cross-cultural work, since one of the most dominant themes in the play is the idea of modernity. Nothing is taken for granted and through Faust’s betrayal of Gretchen, we are provided with a snap-shot of two completely different world-views; the world of Gretchen which is ridden with tradition and familial bonds and the world of Faust in which the divine is being replaced with the individual.
Through the exploration of these questions, my students, primarily from Turkish-German backgrounds, expressed how they made sense of the dominant German culture? What cultural difficulties and differences did they face in trying to fit into a predominantly non-Turkish environment?
students’ performances of faust depicted Apathy and lack of open-heartedness as a prototypical German characteristic. My students also reflected on the character of Gretchen and found similarities with her dilemmas and those of women in Turkish-German households. Hence, the research generated diverse and nuanced narratives on turkish-german migration experiences
Instead of mere adjustment into another culture, my research shows that cultural integration is an ongoing dialogue between individuals from different cultures. Instead of addressing the issues of migration from a lens of identity politics, migration policy makers need to consider and focus on values of friendship between the two communities. Lastly, the use of literature and theatre in diverse classrooms provide emotional and embodied responses from students whose voices need to be heard loud and clear on how they perceive the ‘other’.
