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This paper explores the role of digital platforms as well as mobile messaging applications in the proliferation of the English language, specifically as imports from the United States of America to Germany's academic and anti-racist activist sphere in Mithu Sanyal's political novel "Identitti" (2021). Sanyal was born in 1971 in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk; she holds degrees in German and English Literature as well as a doctoral degree in Cultural Studies (Kulturwissenschaften). As a journalist and essayist, she has published extensively in both public and private media outlets, predominantly in German. To date, "Identitti" is the first of her two German-language novels. The author's academic and journalism background is important to note as Identitti textually incorporates both styles of writing. Its plot revolves around a fictional public debate on the politics of race that very much engages with the political reality in contemporary Germany. The spaces of debate are equally intrinsic to the political nature of the novel's main theme, which is the relationship between university classrooms, broadcast and print media, and the internet's digital spaces. Equally central to the novel's political relevance is its setting in 2020: Identitti textually incorporates reflections on human virtual interactions in the context of the Hanau murders and the COVID-19 pandemic. At an impressive length of 431 pages (including an afterword by the author and two lists of references and recommendations), Identitti offers ample material for analysis and interpretation. This paper will focus on the use of English in the novel and offer reflections on the geopolitics of language in contemporary Germany. I will draw from critiques of the U.S. dominance from scholars intellectually situated outside of the North Atlantic geopolitical zone centered on the EU and the U.S.A. These are a group of social scientists studying Brazilian, Argentinian, and Chilean academic publishing practices, philosopher Moacyr Ayres Novaes Filho, and cultural studies scholar 陳光興 / Kuan-Hsing Chen. With "Identitti" as its primary source, this paper argues that English from the U.S.A. is a geopolitical supra-language, especially when it comes to political discourse on race in Germany. First, Sanyal's plot offers reflections on the personal impact of newer digital media's real-time speed over broadcast journalism and the university as a physical space. Second, the novel as a linguistic corpus demonstrates the dominant position of English in German academic and antiracist activist circles, particularly in their online interactions. Following these reflections, the supra-language of English connects digital immediacy with the hermetic nature of academic knowledge and the enduring prestige of film, television, print, and broadcast media.
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