Fugitive Time: Dismantling the Narrative Logic of Asylum in Abbas Khider’s Der falsche Inder
Xan Holt, Northwestern University
My paper critiques the narrative logic and sequential temporality of the German asylum process by focusing on their dismantling in Abbas Khider’s Der falsche Inder, depicting as it does a displaced person’s flight from Baghdad to Munich in eight different versions. Drawing on Anthony Reed’s “freedom time” that he locates in Black experimental texts, my reading of what I term the fugitive time of Khider’s work explores the myriad resonances and effects of this ‘fugitivity’: its impact on the text’s structure, the identity of its protagonist, and his (in)ability to secure refuge.
Respondent: Lauren Stokes: Northwestern University
Register
This event is free, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.
Register and Request PaperAbout the German Studies Seminar Series
The Newberry Library German Studies Seminar series provides a forum for scholarship-in-progress in the area of German studies. The seminar is particularly interested in papers that cross disciplinary boundaries and that reconceptualize the materials and conventions of German Studies as a field, including beyond the frames of the German language and nation state. Like all Newberry Scholarly Seminars, meetings are conversational and free and open to faculty, graduate students, and members of the public, who register in advance to request papers.