关键词: 语言地理学, 德语文学空间, 小文学, 文学革新

Abstract: German is a transregional, transnational language, and German literature based on the language exhibits the same characteristics. From the perspective of linguistic geography, one can describe the spatial distribution of German writers and their works to sketch the rough outline of a so-called German literature space. As home to the greatest number of the most well-known German-language writers, Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland constitute the “mainland” of the German literature space, with many literary centers within it. In Europe and other continents beyond this “mainland”, there are also many German-speaking regions, which constitute the “outer provinces” and “enclaves” of the German literature space. Due to globalization, immigrant literature is flourishing in the German-speaking area. Many writers from all over the world have immigrated to the “mainland” and are using German in their literary work, creating a contemporary “new frontier” in the German literature space.German writers from all the non-mainland-areas often find themselves caught between the German language and other languages, German culture and other cultures, German literature and other literatures. They share with Kafka, who advocated for so-called “minor literature”, a similar aesthetic pursuit, namely, an active search for literary innovation. The study of the innovativeness of such writers will be an important topic in comparative literature.

Key words: linguistic geography, German literature space, minor literature, literary innovation