Reading Racialization: Yadé Kara's Selam Berlin

Abstract

abstract:In a context that denies the workings of race, engagements with its impact are not always easily discernible. This essay argues that Yadé Kara's 2003 novel Selam Berlin can be read as an overlooked literary negotiation of this "political racelessness" (Goldberg) through its nuanced attention to racialization. Building on critical accounts from Frantz Fanon to Sara Ahmed, the essay contours the specific nature of racialization from the vantage point of those subjected to it and demonstrates how the novel narrativizes the components of this quotidian process. Rather than merely describing it, however, the novel makes racialization's impact palpable via an affective pedagogy targeted at the reader.