Valences of the Human: Grief and Queer Utopia in Olga Grjasnowa’s Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt and Olivia Wenzel’s 1000 Serpentinen Angst

Abstract

This article argues that the contemporary novels Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt by Olga Grjasnowa (2012) and 1000 Serpentinen Angst by Olivia Wenzel (2020) critically interrogate the normative constitution of the human from the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. Through their employment of two key motifs, namely sexuality and grief, the texts render visible forms of dehumanization and their material effects on certain bodies in accordance with what Judith Butler calls a “modulation of grievability.” Both texts also perform a queer utopia by constituting non-violent modes of being-in-the-world through an aesthetic practice that I describe as ästhetisches Eigenwissen.