TransArea: Ottmar Ette on Caribbean Literatures, Fractal Gardens and Tropical Microcosms

Video transcript

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00:00:20:00 − 00:00:25:24	My name is Ottmar Ette, I was born in the Black Forest region of Germany and was raised bilingually. 	
00:00:26:00 − 00:00:30:24	I live in Potsdam, though not here in the Botanical Garden.	
00:00:31:00 − 00:00:36:24	I have been working here in Potsdam for many years, 	
00:00:37:00 – 00:00:42:24	studying the works of Alexander von Humboldt for over three decades.	
00:00:43:00 − 00:00:51:00	Humboldt was very familiar with gardens like this one. So this is a very special place for me.	
00:00:54:00 − 00:00:59:24	I would describe myself as a scholar in Comparative and Romance literature,	
00:01:00:00 − 00:01:05:24	and I have always understood Romance Studies to be a global science.	
00:01:06:00 − 00:01:11:24	It has fascinated me since my days as a student and still does today.	
00:01:12:00 − 00:01:17:24	I wrote my PhD thesis on a Cuban poet and my „Habilitation“ on a French theoretician. 	
00:01:18:00 − 00:01:26:00	I am passionate about what I do, and I try to share that passion with others.	
		
00:01:28:00 − 00:01:32:24	Thank you so much for this nice introduction, Mr. Ette. 	
00:01:33:00 − 00:01:37:24	As you just mentioned, we are sitting here in the Botanical Garden of the University of Potsdam.	
00:01:38:00 − 00:01:45:24	We chose this place because you have been working for many years now on the tropics and the Caribbean.	
00:01:46:00 − 00:01:51:24	You recently published a book concerned with  TransArea Studies. 	
00:01:52:00 − 00:01:57:00	In a nutshell: What exactly does TransArea mean?	
		
00:01:58:00 − 00:02:06:24	In essence, TransArea Studies deal with how our world is constructed, and how we can think and imagine the world around us.	
00:02:07:00 − 00:02:12:24	TransArea Studies also look at the historical development of globalization over the centuries, 	
00:02:13:00 − 00:02:18:24	at diverse periods of drift and acceleration. 	
00:02:19:00 − 00:02:26:24	Its primary focus is not historiography, nor necessarily economics or social movements like migration.  	
00:02:27:00 − 00:02:32:24	Rather, it looks at globalization from the perspective of literature, 	
00:02:33:00 − 00:02:39:00	which is capable of integrating and aggregating all of these aspects in a new way.	
		
00:02:40:00 − 00:02:44:24	Would you consider the Botanical Garden to be a TransArea?	
		
00:02:45:00 − 00:02:49:24	Good question. In essence, the Botanical Garden is a myse en abyme,	
00:02:50:00 − 00:02:54:24	a fractal space, a microcosm of the entire world.	
00:02:55:00 − 00:03:01:12	What we see here is a trans-tropical space — the flora comes from different areas of the tropics.	
00:03:02:00 − 00:03:07:24	So we can only understand this space as a result of different phases of globalization.	
00:03:08:00 − 00:03:13:24	That turns the Botanical Garden into a space within a space, 	
00:03:14:00 − 00:03:19:24	which re-creates all this diversity before our very eyes,	
00:03:20:00 − 00:03:25:24	in the sounds, the smells, in the presence of organisms and creatures	
00:03:26:00 − 00:03:34:00	that technically don’t belong here, yet have now come to live here.	
00:03:37:00 − 00:03:45:00	In that sense, this garden has created – in the co-existence of all these diverse plants – an entire universe unto itself.	
		
00:03:46:08 − 00:03:51:24	In your approach towards TransArea Studies, you often return to the Caribbean, to the tropics. 	
00:03:52:00 − 00:03:58:00	Why is that?	
		
00:03:59:00 − 00:04:04:24	I don’t work solely on the Caribbean. But when I do, it is for several reasons. 	
00:04:05:00 − 00:04:10:24	I don’t think we can comprehend ourselves merely from within ourselves.	
00:04:11:00 − 00:04:16:24	That being said, we can understand the Caribbean as a large-scale, experimental space.	
00:04:17:00 − 00:04:24:24	For Europe, the Caribbean has always been a mirror image, but more importantly, also a laboratory.	
00:04:25:00 − 00:04:30:24	Of course, the term „laboratory“ evokes a sense of brutality: 	
00:04:31:00 − 00:04:36:24	the violence that was committed to objects and especially to people — displacement, migration, deportation.	
00:04:37:00 − 00:04:4 2:24	In that sense, we can learn a lot about Europe by studying the Caribbean.	
00:04:43:00 − 00:04:48:24	The point is: we need a culture of thought and reflection that understands spaces and areas	
00:04:49:00 − 00:04:54:24	primarily through their inherent movements, and not as static concepts.	
00:04:55:00 − 00:04:59:24	In the sciences and humanities, we need to develop a poetics of movement.	
00:05:00:00 − 00:05:04:24	That way, we can gain a much better sense not only of literature, 	
00:05:05:00 − 00:05:10:00	but also of ourselves, in a way that is more suited to today’s challenges.	
		
00:05:11:00 − 00:05:17:00	How do TransArea studies deal with the fact that the Caribbean is so loaded metaphorically?	
		
00:05:18:00 − 00:05:23:24	None of the many dimensions that shape our lives can after all be understood	
00:05:24:00 − 00:05:31:24	ex nihilo, out of nothing. There is always some predetermination.	
00:05:32:00 − 00:05:37:24	And of course, the Caribbean evokes a whole set of images in all of us,	
00:05:38:00 − 00:05:43:24	even in those of us who have never been there before.	
00:05:44:00 − 00:05:48:24	There are still many of us in Europe who project	
00:05:49:00 − 00:05:53:21	all kinds of images onto the Caribbean: palm trees, exotic animals, etc.	
00:05:55:00 − 00:06:59:24	So the Caribbean can be viewed as an ideal space of reflection,	
00:06:00:00 − 00:06:04:24	since we are almost obliged to tackle and confront this imagery.	
00:06:05:00 − 00:06:09:24	We cannot simply walk past these images.	
00:06:10:00 − 00:06:15:16	They shape our approach to the region, and also reveal their own historical contingency.	
		
00:06:17:00 − 00:06:22:24	You also make the case for literary studies as a life science, as a means to study bios.	
00:06:23:00 − 00:06:31:00	Can literature help us make our lives, our living together, simpler and more peaceful?	
		
00:06:32:00 − 00:06:37:24	Literature can certainly make a key contribution 	
00:06:38:00 − 00:06:43:24	to our knowledge and comprehension of life and living together.	
00:06:44:00 − 00:06:48:24	It can help us add historical depth to these issues.	
00:06:49:00 − 00:06:53:24	Literature has always been based upon and dealt with	
00:06:54:00 − 00:06:59:04	different forms and norms of living together.	
00:06:59:05 − 00:07:04:24	Literature is a laboratory — a Botanical Garden, so to speak — 	
00:07:05:00 − 00:07:11:10	in which we can experiment with all the potentialities of human life.	
		
00:07:12:00 − 00:07:17:19	Can literature impact politics? Would you consider TransArea literature to be political?	
		
00:07:19:00 − 00:07:26:24	In fact, TransArea literature is intrinsically political. Not necessarily in the sense of everyday politics, 	
00:07:27:00 − 00:07:34:24	but in the sense of being political. In other words, it is political in a broader, more profound sense.	
00:07:35:00 − 00:00:40:24	Literature demonstrates how even our most intimate emotions 	
00:07:41:00 − 00:07:48:18	— our ways of living together, love, hate — can turn political.	
00:07:49:00 − 00:07:54:24	Literature is, so to speak, a realm of imagination.	
00:00:55:00 − 00:08:02:13	And politics in today’s world can be understood  precisely as a lack of imagination.	
00:08:03:00 − 00:08:10:24	The tendency to justify political decisions as if there were no alternatives at any given moment	
00:08:11:00 − 00:08:18:24	is a notion that is averse to literature; on the contrary,	
00:00:19:00 − 00:08:28:13	it is a notion that is constantly questioned by literature in order to give way to new perspectives.	
00:08:30:00 − 00:08:36:00	Literature in a sense offers a way to overcome political gridlock.	
		
00:08:36:02 − 00:08:41:10	What are your thoughts on the German term „Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund“ (people with a migrant history)?	
		
00:08:42:00 − 00:08:46:24	I’m not very fond of it, because all of us actually have a migratory background, 	
00:08:47:00 − 00:08:51:24	be it in the familial, individual, or collective sense. 	
00:08:52:04 − 00:08:57:24	In fact, literature neatly demonstrates how we each stem from many places,	
00:08:58:00 − 00:09:06:00	how our multiple futures are enabled by the poly-logical structure of our multiple origins.	
00:09:06:05 − 00:09:12:05	In Brandenburg, there is a political catch phrase that goes:	
00:09:12:10 − 00:09:16:24	„no future without origin“.	
00:09:17:00 − 00:09:21:24	That might sound clever in a political sense, 	
00:09:22:00 − 00:09:26:24	but it reduces everything to one origin, to one future.	
00:09:27:00 − 00:09:31:24	I think, we need to rephrase here: „no futures without origins“.	
00:09:32:00 − 00:09:36:24	That brings me to an important aspect of the political approach of TransArea literary studies.	
00:09:37:00 − 00:09:41:00	That is, to consider the diversity of places and languages that we originate from.	
00:09:41:05 − 00:09:45:24	In that respect, I believe in what Amin Maalouf has said in 	
00:09:46:00 − 00:09:50:24	Les Identités meurtrières (In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong):	
00:09:51:00 − 00:09:55:24	The more points of reference we have, the more we become individuals, 	
00:09:56:00 − 00:09:59:24	the more we differ from others.	
00:10:00:00 − 00:10:03:24	At the same time, these multiple points of reference allow 	
00:10:04:00 − 00:10:07:24	for more ways of connecting and of relating to one another.	
00:10:08:00 − 00:10:12:24	I think that really reflects the political agenda behind the concept of TransArea,	
00:10:13:00 − 00:10:17:24	behind the reframing of a literary history of globalization,	
00:10:18:00 − 00:10:22:19	that focuses not solely on the economics or the historiography of globalization.	
		
00:10:23:00 − 00:10:27:24	I imagine you travel a lot. 	
00:10:28:00 − 00:10:32:24	It’s obviously part of your profession, attending conferences and so on.	
00:10:33:00 − 00:10:37:24	But travel literature also constitutes an important part of TransArea literature, and it is 	
00:10:38:00 − 00:10:42:10	something you have worked on time and again.	
00:10:42:11 − 00:10:46:24	How do you travel? What is it you like about traveling?	
		
00:10:48:00 − 00:10:53:24	Traveling has fascinated me all my life. I have always loved to travel along	
00:10:54:00 − 00:10:59:24	with others since I was a child. In fact, I cannot imagine a life without travel.	
00:11:00:00 − 00:11:06:17	It is, of course, an exceptional privilege, a great gift — as long as you are free to decide where you want to go.	
00:11:12:00 − 00:11:17:24	It means integrating a whole set of travel experiences	
00:11:20:00 − 00:11:25:24	into a scientific project based on lived experience.	
00:11:26:00 − 00:11:31:24	I imagine that without travel, my profession	
00:11:32:00 − 00:11:39:24	would be some kind of forced sedentary existence. 	
00:11:40:00 − 00:11:48:00	I am very happy with my profession; if it weren’t for travel I wouldn’t be nearly as happy.	
		
00:11:49:00 − 00:11:53:24	Well, if that’s so, Mr. Ette, we wish you enjoyable travels over the summer break.	
00:11:54:00 − 00:11:57:24	Thank you so much for your time.	
		
00:11:58:00 − 00:12:04:00	The same to you. And keep reading! Reading is always a journey: so enjoy the ride!