Page 35 - Microsoft Word - CMA BOOK_2

Cultural Migration in Autobiography Grundtvig Partnerships 2009-2011

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

e-mail: kszia@komesnet.com.pl http://cma.internetdsl.pl

35

The Taste of Home, or Every Memory is the Present Eva Christina Zeller

How do immigrants feel when they want to write their own stories?

No different than non- immigrants do: when confronted with a blank sheet of white paper, all writers are beginners and that each day anew.

When we write we´re all in the same boat, or to put it more exactly, in the VHS in Schwäbisch Gmünd. When we look outside we see the comforting and protective roof of Gmünd`s cathedral. We all see the same roof. And yet our experiences of houses and security are totally different. These differences are dealt with in the texts. Where are we from? Where are we going? What does my home taste like? How can we describe it?

That’s how it all begins. With learning to speak and write. With the careful spelling out of experiences, with taming our own pain.

It has to be tamed to a certain degree, so that it´s ready to set itself down on a white sheet of paper. How did we accomplish this ? We wrote letters and fantasized back in time to point of departure. We mutually narrated and questioned. Through word clusters and writing games, we ensnared the pain and joy; we looked at old photographs and captured in words their shaded and shadowy backgrounds.

We´re all in the same boat, and yet we come from different shores. All participants exposed themselves on a journey into the past, faithful to Novalis´ words: “ Every memory is the present.” The authors have brought words and sentences and stories to light, and recorded them. Longing and homesickness, fear, anger and resistance were breathing down their necks. But what has been captured is worth reading.