Heimat als Metapher für Identitäten und Emotionen

The German idea of Heimat (home, homeland) is notoriously hard to define. Qualities of Heimat change from author to author and with different historical and geographical perspectives. Using cognitive linguistic sources as well as Hans Blumenberg’s philosophical metaphorology, this article first introduces the concept of metaphors for identities and emotions. Heimat is such a metaphor for identities and emotions. It can be filled with different qualities and horizons without turning it into something random or obscure. We find ever new conceptual metaphors in use for Heimat. These conceptual metaphors allow us to see Heimat as an ontological metaphor, in which the subject in its ever subjective search for orientation finds its identities and emotions affirmatively reflected. With Heimat, we start out from a metaphor; and we use further metaphors to give our basic notions of identities and emotions affirmation. Heimat as a metaphor of identities and emotions is based on a circular metaphorical epistemology that allows the subject to reaffirm itself in its existence. It is this circular metaphorical epistemology which makes metaphors of identities and emotions open to manipulations, be they commercial, political, or psychological. In closing, this article looks at the metaphorization of “home / homeland” as a metaphor of identities and emotions in other cultures (Russian rodina, Czech domov / vlast, English home / homeland, Chinese chia / chia hsiang, and Minangkabau rindu).