Christian Krachts Abenteuerroman IMPERIUM: Ein Buch zwischen postkolonialer Komik und rechtslastigem Gedankengut? Eine Untersuchung aus afrikanischer Perspektive

Abstract

Among several novels of modern German-language literature from the last 20 years that deal with German colonialism the novel IMPERIUM by Christian Kracht stands out and has led to a broad debate all over the German-speaking world. Some literary critics took the view that the novel is the biggest scandal of this early century, while others have praised IMPERIUM. Using an eclectic parody approach (Neumann 1962; Hutcheon 1985; Jameson 1983), Wolfgang Kayser’s theory of grotesqueness enhanced by Carl Pietzcker and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of literature’s carnivalesque this master thesis attempts an interpretation of the polemic novel from a perspective specifically beyond the prevailing discourses solely from European’s publications about the novel. The African perspective is especially directed towards the theme of colonialism that is at the center novel. This Thesis discussed, therefore, first of all who the author is inclusive all his repertoire of works and in general what characterizes his works. A summary of the novel and the dominant literary techniques forms part of this discussion. This was followed by a discussion of the novel from a perspective that is counter the prevailing discourses in the western scholarship with special critical look at the colonizer-colonized dichotomy. The last part of this research work touched upon the critical reception of the novel in European cycles, looking exactly at how the novel was criticized and praised in its review. After a thorough analysis of all these aspects, the thesis concludes that IMPERIUM contains provocative ideas coupled with several literary techniques in the novel that are at the same time pro-, anti-, post- and post-postcolonial thus giving the novel a fascinating literary-comic effect that even perhaps loses track of that black humor.