“Draußen war Deutschland, und Drinnen war Ich”: Frontier, Periphery and Liminality in Maxim Biller’s Autofiction

Abstract

This article will offer an approach to the autofictional character of Maxim Biller, framed mainly in Der gebrauchte Jude, from a mixed perspective: as a frontier character and, also, as a periphery one. This is intended, on the one hand, to find a new space for discussion on the possibilities and limits of the use of postcolonial theory in the German-Jewish context, as well as an analysis on the use of mockery and satire as strategic elements in the cultural and literary context of post-Shoah Germany. On the other hand, the possibilities and limits of a peripheral discourse that looks at the Israeli center will also be explored. This approach will aim to analyze such a relationship as a psychic space where phenomena such as reflection, projection, and aspiration occur.