‘dass diese tauben Geschichten aufflattern’: Narrative, Translingual Creativity and Belonging in Katja Petrowskaja’s 'Vielleicht Esther' (2014)

Abstract

This article argues that reading Katja Petrowskaja’s 'Vielleicht Esther' in the context of minor literature as a literature of deterritorialisation highlights its sense of liberation and emphasises the creation of associations – aspects that are crucial to this transnational and translingual book about retrieving memory across space and time. Going beyond the idea of a binary relationship between minor and major literature and instead focusing on rhizomatic affiliation emerges as key. A wider framework of analysis is also provided by ideas that derive from or have been developed in conjunction with Deleuze and Guattari’s thinking: the idea of minor transnationalism (Françoise Lionnet, Shu-Mei Shih), the concepts of multi- and translingualism (Leslie Adelson, Steven G. Kellman) and the ethics of relationality (Sara Ahmed) and multidirectionality in postmemory discourses (Hirsch, Rothberg). Combined, these ideas prove to be useful tools for understanding Petrowskaja’s handling of narrative, language and belonging in 'Vielleicht Esther'.