Schutzian Research

Volume 14, 2022

Strangeness: Analyzing Otherness as a Form of Relationship Through the Older Brother and Schutz’s Thoughts

Being a stranger has become a global definition due to the migrations caused by the wars and unemployment in the Middle East and the perceptions of Islamophobia and Islamic terrorism prevailing in the West. In Alfred Schutz’s essay The Stranger, he deals with this issue in terms of orientation and adaptation problems and gives information about this concept by making use of different examples. Mahir Guven also rehandles the concept of the stranger in his novel Older Brother (Grand Frère) by building on the story of an immigrant family. Older Brother is a contemporary and political novel. It tells of two brothers in their thirties who grew up in a multicultural family (Turkish mother, Kurdish father, and two brothers; one is a half‑Syrian taxi driver, and the other is a half‑French surgical nurse) in the suburbs of Paris. The novel interrogates concepts such as nationality, belonging, family ties, culture, identity, immigration, and foreignness through the eyes of the characters. Starting from the problem of being a stranger, which has become a big problem with the effect of increasing immigration movements, we will try to examine the novel Older Brother from Alfred Schutz’s point of view approach to this matter.