Mithu Sanyal

Mithu Sanyal was born in Düsseldorf in 1971. She holds a doctorate in cultural studies and works as an author, journalist and critic. In 2009, she published the non-fiction book »Vulva. Die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts (tr: Vulva: Revealing the Invisible Sex) about the historical and cultural changes in the meaning of said genital; this was followed in 2016 by »Vergewaltigung. Aspekte eines Verbrechens« (Eng. »Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo«, 2019), which examines how rape is generally talked about and which concepts and discourses underlie it. »Mithu Sanyal brings enlightenment to an irrational discourse, fact-rich, objective and plausible,was the verdict of »Spiegel Online«.

In 2021, she presented her literary debut with the novel »Identitti« (Eng., 2022). In it, the ostensibly Indian-born star professor of postcolonial studies at the University of Düsseldorf is exposed as a white German. Her student Nivedita, a person of color and blogger known as Identitti, confronts her … »The book turns out to be an instructive and wonderful read when it takes aim at all the positions and positional wars around what is called postcolonialism and identity politics in a refreshingly cheeky, honest, critical and yet empathetic way«, praised Ö1. The novel was shortlisted for the German Book Prize and was awarded the Ruhr Literature Prize and the Ernst Bloch Prize 2021.

The author’s second novel, »Antichristie«, will be published in 2024. Set in London in 2022, shortly after the death of the Queen, it follows the German-Indian screenwriter Durga. She is actually engaged to work on a film adaptation of the Agatha Christie crime novels, but suddenly finds herself in 1906 in the middle of the struggle for Indian independence, which is anything but non-violent like Gandhi’s.

Mithu Sanyal lives in Düsseldorf.

As of May 2024

Vulva. Die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts
Wagenbach
Berlin, 2009

Vergewaltigung. Aspekte eines Verbrechens
Edition Nautilus
Hamburg, 2016

Identitti
Hanser
München, 2021

Mithu Sanyal über Emily Brontë
KiWi
Köln, 2022

Antichristie
Hanser
München, 2024