Reading by Ottmar Ette: "Mein Name sei Amo"

Ottmar Ette reads from his new novel: Mein Name sei Amo
Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first black philosopher in the German-speaking world in the first half of the 18th century, is certainly one of the most colourful and fascinating figures in the history of the European Enlightenment. His mysterious poodle Zep accompanies him through all stages of his life as an enslaved person, from his childhood and first name in Africa to his deportation to the Caribbean and Europe. He experiences his academic rise despite the many pitfalls of racism as well as the glorious time of his Amo in Sanssouci, suffers with him the pleasures and torments of love, but also follows him on his journeys to an Africa unknown to him, in search of a wisdom that the philosopher cannot find in the Europe of the Enlightenment. A literary kaleidoscope between historical novel and thriller, between scholarly satire and conte philosophique.

Ottmar Ette, Honorary Member of the Modern Language Association, author and Professor of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature, has so far published two novels, "Zwei deutsche Leben" and "Mein Name sei Amo". In literary studies, he has coined terms such as literatures without a fixed abode, survival knowledge and conviviality; he researches and teaches on the French- and Spanish-language literatures and cultures of the world - from Europe to Latin America and the Caribbean to the transareal connections between regions and countries in the context of the Romance literatures of the world. He heads a long-term project on Alexander von Humboldt at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy. Ottmar Ette lives and works in Potsdam and Berlin as well as in Changsha (China), where he founded a research centre in 2020.