Reading by Ottmar Ette: "Mein Name sei Amo"

6 pm s.t.
European University Viadrina
Große Scharrnstr. 59
15230 Frankfurt (Oder)
Main Building, Room 217

Poster

Ottmar Ette reads from his new novel: Mein Name sei Amo

Anton Wilhelm Amo was the first black philosopher in the German-speaking world in the first half of the 18th century. He is certainly one of the most colourful and fascinating intellectuals in the history of European Enlightenment. His mysterious poodle Zep stays by his side through all stages of his life as an enslaved person, from his childhood and search of his 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 master in Sanssouci, suffers with him the pleasures and torments of love, but also follows him on his journeys to an unknown Africa, in search of a wisdom that the philosopher cannot find in the Europe of Enlightenment. A literary kaleidoscope between historical novel and thriller, between scholarly satire and conte philosophique.

Ottmar Ette, writer, Professor of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature, as well as Honorary Member of the Modern Language Association, has published two novels: "Zwei deutsche Leben" and "Mein Name sei Amo". In literary studies, he has shaped terms such as literatures without a fixed abode, ÜberlebensWissen and TransArea Studies; his research and teaching focusses on French- and Spanish-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. He is the director of 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 center in 2020.