PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This contribution handles Olga Grjasnowa’s second novel Die juristische Unschärfe einer Ehe from 2014 and enlightens the interdependencies between body, biography, and space through the analysis of the protagonist Leyla, a professional ballerina who lives between Baku, Moskau, and Berlin. The argumentation is based on the idea that, while Leyla’s body has an inner stability because of her ballet education, she acts differently depending on the place where she is located. This discussion is exemplified through her fluid gender identity and the emancipation narrative that develops through her different bodily experiences in different locations. The main goal of the analysis is to show an expressive dimension inherent in the body, defined with the sociological term Körperbiografie, that is not completely controlled by the consciousness of the person, referring furthermore to an anthropological understanding of the ballet as a normative kind of art.