As part of the German Studies Colloquium, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures invites you to join us for a virtual reading and discussion with author Marina Frenk:

Placeless Identity, Transgenerational Trauma:
A Reading and Conversation with Marina Frenk

Marina Frenk will read from her debut novel ewig her und gar nicht wahr (Berlin 2020). She will be introduced by Ph.D. candidate Lauren Beck, one of Frenk's translators, who organized this event and will lead the discussion.

At the age six, Kira, the protagonist of ewig her und gar nicht wahr, had migrated from Moldova to Germany with her Jewish Russian family. Now in her thirties, Kira lives in Berlin, and yet she does not seem to have truly arrived in Germany or even the present. Violent hallucinations interrupt her otherwise secure life as a mother and teacher. In fragmented scenes of personal and family memory, Kira contextualizes her failing grasp on reality through a tangled web of family traumas and their historical contexts.

Frenk’s autofictional novel asks: what remains of identity after multiple generations of uprootedness? How does one engage with an unknown generational trauma? Is it possible to live outside of national or even familial systems?

In addition to writing, Frenk performs as a musician and actress at the Gorki Theater in Berlin, and she will share some of her musical work as well.

The event organizers invite attendees to participate in English and in German. The readings will be held in German.