Zur Differenzierung des Toleranzbegriffs am Beispiel von Chimamanda Adichies A Private Experience und Gotthold Ephraim Lessings Nathan der Weise

Abstract

The underlying study examines the concept of tolerance in literary works by two different writers. The thesis analyzes the texts Nathan der Weise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and A Private Experience by Chimamanda Adichie, to investigate how the concept of tolerance was addressed in the two different pluralistic societies. The study undertakes a close reading and analysis of both primary and secondary texts with the theoretical frameworks of intercultural and postcolonial literary theories. Further, Rainer Forst’s concept of tolerance was also employed. These theories helped to highlight the different forms of tolerance within the respective societies. This study shows the effects of religious and cultural intolerance in the respective societies of Nigeria and Germany at different eras. Using the various concepts of identity and alterity, especially as employed in postcolonial theory and also the ideas of religious tolerance as employed by Lessing in his discourses on Enlightenment, this work sought to bring out the various ways that tolerance was not only conceptualized, but also employed. The characters have also been critically analyzed towards the realization of the objectives of the thesis.