Towards a ‘Pragmatic Cosmopolitanism’: Rethinking Solidarity with Refugees in Olga Grjasnowa’s Gott ist nicht schüchtern

This article examines Olga Grjasnowa's depiction of the 2015 'refugee crisis' in Gott ist nicht schüchtern (2017), focusing on how this German-language writer of Russian Jewish extraction offers a nuanced understanding of refugees’ motives for flight. Further to this, the article explores the novel's implied critique of cosmopolitan memory and multidirectional memory (Levy/Sznaider; Rothberg) as an underpinning of contemporary humanitarian activism and empathy with refugees. Gott ist nicht schüchtern instead promotes a ‘pragmatic cosmopolitanism’ that in harking back to states’ obligations under the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention recalls Hannah Arendt and present-day political philosophers such as Seyla Benhabib.