David Albaharis Roman Der Bruder als Lektüre aus der sephardischen Diaspora

Abstract

In his novel The Brother, David Albahari designs a transmedial network that relates to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the breakup of a family. The confrontation with an unknown brother, who was adopted by a Jewish family in Argentinian exile, lets the coordinates of morality and aesthetics get out of hand: The brother not only reveals himself as a connoisseur of the literature of Jorge Luis Borges, he also bursts into the everyday life of a country that is unprepared for him as a transsexual person. In this spectrum of literary discourse and through the experience of homophobia, of diaspora and transgender reality, memories are stimulated by photographs and aesthetic lines of escape unfold and help accepting the unknown Other.