REMINISCING AND RECOLLECTION OF LIFE IN ILIJA TROJANOW’S NOVEL THE WORLD IS BIG, AND SALVATION LURKS EVERYWHERE

Abstract

IIija Trojanow, one of the Bulgarian writers of Contemporary German Literature, penned the story of the Luxow family's migration from Bulgaria to Germany in his first novel, "The World is Big, and Salvation Lurks Everywhere" (Die Welt ist groß und Rettung lauert überall, 1996). Employing self-reminiscences ingrained in his autobiographic memoir, the author reveals how the oppressive communist regime of the 70s affected society in the novel's story of the Luxow family. The novel is composed employing modern and post-modern narration techniques. The past is rendered in the story of Alex Luxow, the main character, who loses his family in a traffic accident in Germany and cannot recall past events before this accident. In addition, the main character's journeys in tandem with his godfather Bai Dan, who helps him in the healing process both physically and spiritually, indicate the search for an individual and cultural identity. This study discusses how the main character's memories of the overshadowed past are revived and what they point to while surpassing individual/cultural boundaries in the context of memory objects in autobiographical and collective reminiscences.