Queer Spectrality and the Hope of Heterolingual Address

Abstract

This article reads the final moment of Fatma Aydemir’s 2022 novel, Dschinns, as an instance of heterolingual address, which provides an alternative to the progressive logic of assimilation in both Germany and Turkey and the cyclicality of transgenerational trauma. Opening out onto the possibility of a forthcoming counter-address marked by queer spectrality, the novel prompts readers to engage in an open-ended process of community formation by rethinking their own modes of address and the myriad power structures that undergird them.