Fluid Writing: Identity, Gender and Migration in Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s Ausser sich (2017)

Abstract This article offers a reading of Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s Ausser sich which focuses on the “fluidity” of the novel as thematic and narrative aspect in relation to questions of identity, gender and migration. My reading shows how Salzmann has crafted a narrative that unfolds at the intersections of multiple transitions in the protagonist’s life. In Ausser sich, the reader follows Ali’s family’s migration from the Soviet Union to West Germany; Ali’s own search for their past and twin brother in Istanbul; and the gender transition that the protagonist undergoes. My analysis highlights how these thematic aspects are reflected in the form of the novel, its queer narrative voice, and the use of multiple languages. Guided by ideas taken from queer and feminist narrative theory and informed by the concept of “fluidity” explored within a sociological, postcolonial and postmigrant context, I show how Salzmann’s “fluid writing” resists binary classifications to account for the shifts described.