Reluctant Germans: performing identity abroad

dc.contributor.advisorFrankental, Sally
dc.contributor.authorGaude, Thomas Frank Daniel
dc.date.accessioned2025-11-04T07:00:19Z
dc.date.available2025-11-04T07:00:19Z
dc.date.issued2004
dc.date.updated2024-08-13T13:23:58Z
dc.description.abstractThis thesis deals with members of a particular age cohort of German migrants in Cape Town. The informants all belong to Germany's 'post-boomer' generation, which has been the subject of much recent popular media coverage in Germany. Similar situations have been portrayed in writings from the USA. Being members of the middle-class, the respondents are equipped with both financial and cultural capital, which facilitates their connectedness to both home country and receiving society while abroad. This form of multiple connectedness implies a transnational identity as described by various authors. The particularity of these respondents' performance of national identity in Cape Town is based on both their perception of, and attitudes towards, Germany as well as the impact of their new surrounding. The perception of their home country is informed through a combination of the informants' upbringing in an era of financial wealth, being part of a particular generation in Germany, and existing stereotypical images of 'Germanness'. In Cape Town these respondents avoid creating an ethnic enclave and distance themselves from the established German community in the city. Instead they seek contact with citizens of other nation-states and engage in behavior that has been deemed 'cosmopolitan'. This cosmopolitanism surfaces in their everyday life in South Africa, in relationship to, for example, their social networks, areas of residence and material culture. Loss of national identity, in this case, is not felt as a painful process as described in most other studies on diasporas, but rather as a willful action.
dc.identifier.apacitationGaude, T. F. D. (2004). <i>Reluctant Germans: performing identity abroad</i>. (). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42097en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationGaude, Thomas Frank Daniel. <i>"Reluctant Germans: performing identity abroad."</i> ., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42097en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationGaude, T.F.D. 2004. Reluctant Germans: performing identity abroad. . University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42097en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Gaude, Thomas Frank Daniel AB - This thesis deals with members of a particular age cohort of German migrants in Cape Town. The informants all belong to Germany's 'post-boomer' generation, which has been the subject of much recent popular media coverage in Germany. Similar situations have been portrayed in writings from the USA. Being members of the middle-class, the respondents are equipped with both financial and cultural capital, which facilitates their connectedness to both home country and receiving society while abroad. This form of multiple connectedness implies a transnational identity as described by various authors. The particularity of these respondents' performance of national identity in Cape Town is based on both their perception of, and attitudes towards, Germany as well as the impact of their new surrounding. The perception of their home country is informed through a combination of the informants' upbringing in an era of financial wealth, being part of a particular generation in Germany, and existing stereotypical images of 'Germanness'. In Cape Town these respondents avoid creating an ethnic enclave and distance themselves from the established German community in the city. Instead they seek contact with citizens of other nation-states and engage in behavior that has been deemed 'cosmopolitan'. This cosmopolitanism surfaces in their everyday life in South Africa, in relationship to, for example, their social networks, areas of residence and material culture. Loss of national identity, in this case, is not felt as a painful process as described in most other studies on diasporas, but rather as a willful action. DA - 2004 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Social Antropology LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2004 T1 - Reluctant Germans: performing identity abroad TI - Reluctant Germans: performing identity abroad UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42097 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/42097
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationGaude TFD. Reluctant Germans: performing identity abroad. []. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology, 2004 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42097en_ZA
dc.language.isoen
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentSocial Anthropology
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subjectSocial Antropology
dc.titleReluctant Germans: performing identity abroad
dc.typeThesis / Dissertation
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
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