Fiston Mwanza Mujila: Tram 83

13.01.2025 - 13.01.2025

Tram 83 – as somewhat expected – triggered relatively different and sometimes strongly emotional reactions, which were triggered either by what some participants understood to be the virulent sexism of the book, or by the fact that other participants found that the novel portrays reality in unsparing horror. Some of the participants confessed that they could not read the book to the end for these reasons. Others had a similar reading experience at first, but after a while it turned into a kind of reading vortex.

A central question of the discussion was whether the text actually portrays work in a more emphatic or meaningful sense or whether it is more about a pure struggle for survival. It was repeatedly argued that, at best, only sex work was portrayed at some length, while other participants pointed out that a plurality of forms of work were portrayed. The question of the concept of work was also related to the fact that in the book there are actually only informal, precarious forms of work, which may be the rule for many African societies, while in Germany they are often (still) discussed as a deviation from certain work norms, which may reflect a certain class and educational background.

A widely shared impression was that the text rejected solution strategies, offers of meaning, and political alternatives - also in contrast to the first two texts we read this season - and that this created the book’s specific effect. We did not agree on how to evaluate this. The theme of music, hedonistic outbursts, and desire was discussed again and again, which is centrally represented in the novel and which is also conveyed performatively, so to speak, by the author through his language (esp. when the text is read aloud). The question in this regard was whether there is a poetics here that positions aesthetic production and a pleasurable reception of culture (especially music!) as a temporary alternative to a precarious world of work characterized by violence ( the tram, the protagonist Lucien). It was also interesting that the interpretative perspective of “work” played no role in the reception of the novel when it was published, but it did trigger an extremely productive discussion among us.