An Old/New Vision of Europe. National Responsibility and Cultural Otherness in Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Play Perikizi

Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s play Perikizi (2010) is a particularly significant migration story because of its shrewd exploration of European integration, specifically in Germany. The protagonist is a girl who undertakes an adventurous journey from Turkey to Europe in order to realize her dream of becoming an actress. The play thus delves into the problem of integration in Europe from both the internal and external perspective of a young woman from a country whose culture and history are deeply intertwined with Europe’s, but are exotic enough to represent the cultural ‘other’ in the eyes of every European. I focus on an issue that is a golden thread throughout the play: the connection between genocide, nationalism and xenophobia, a thematic complex told from the perspective of a character who discovers the chance for change on her journey from East to West. I demonstrate that Perikizi’s journey highlights some structural parallels between East and West with respect to these issues. The play opens up a space in which national responsibility and the relationship with cultural otherness are problematized through different aesthetic strategies. At the end, it depicts a vision of Europe that is an alternative to a past, and a present, of nationalist and racist crimes.