Mithu Sanyal in 2014

Mithu Melanie Sanyal (born 1971 in Düsseldorf, Germany^[1]), also known as Mithu M. Sanyal, is a German academic in cultural studies, a journalist and author. Her main focuses are on feminism, racism, pop culture and postcolonialism.

Life and work

Mithu Sanyal was born Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1971 to a Polish mother and an Indian father. She studied German and English literary studies at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, where she went on to do a doctor's thesis in cultural history on female genitalia. In 2009, she published a book called Vulva. Die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts, which translates to Vulva. The uncovering of the invisible sex and is based on her dissertation.

Since 1996, Sanyal has been an author for radio programmes and audio books for the WDR, a public boradcasting company. Among others, she has also been writing for the NDR, BR, Frankfurter Rundschau, taz, junge Welt and the Federal Agency for Civic Education.^[2] Ever since her second book was published, Rape. From Lucretia to #MeToo, Sanyal has continually been invited to speak publicly on panels, readings and TV shows.^[3][4][5] The book Rape, the original being German, as well as Vulva, have been translated into several different languages.^[6]

Sanyal was somewhat critical of the #metoo movement, arguing that accusations of sexual assault or harassment were irreversibly stigmatizing to the accused.^[4][7] Feminist media in Germany condemned this statement as a trivialisation of rape and sexual violence.^[8] Right-wing blogs and websites misrepresented Sanyal's argument as resulting from her Indian heritage, with some falsely claiming that rape was legal in India.^[9][10]

On 17 February 2017, an article by Sanyal and the journalist Marie Albrecht published by German newspaper Die Tageszeitung sparked a controversy. Having conducted interviews with people who had experienced sexual violence, they suggested an alternative, additional term for self-identification of "Opfer", "victims", namely "Erlebende sexualisierter Gewalt", which translates to "people experiencing sexual violence". A right-wing German blog called Politically Incorrect published Sanyal's private e-mail address whereupon she received rape and death threats.^[11] Her article was widely discussed in mainstream media^[12] and even the German Feminist linguist Luise F. Pusch commented upon it in her blog.^[13] Hundreds of people also wrote e-mails to Sanyal showing her solidarity.^[14] In July 2019, the investigative journalism newsroom Correctiv published a statement about what happened titled No, Mithu Sanyal did not tell victims that a rape could be an experience (original: Nein, Mithu Sanyal hat Opfern nicht geraten, eine Vergewaltigung könne "auch Erleben sein").^[15]

In 2021, Sanyal published her first novel called Identitti. It is about a professor of Postcolonial theory, who named herself after the Hindu goddess Saraswati and falsely claims to be of Indian descent. When she turns out to be German and to have darkened her skin, the following scandal is told from the perspective of one of her students, Nivedita, who like Sanyal has a Polish mother and an Indian father. Using the pseudonym Identitti, Nivedita is the author of a blog and several social media accounts, on which she comments on topics such as racism, migration, sexual identity and orientation as well as identity politics. The character Saraswati alludes to the case of Rachel Dolezal. The novel has received mostly positive reviews.^[16]

In October 2021, Sanyal was admitted to the PEN Centre Germany.^[17] When the organisation split due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sanyal was among the members leaving the association and was elected to be on the board of the newly founded PEN Berlin.^[18]

Sanyal and her husband live in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk, Germany. They have two children,^[19] a son and a daughter.^[20] She told the magazine Stern that she has had several abortions.^[21]

Awards

Among other awards, Sanyal has received the Dietrich-Oppenberg-Medienpreis by the foundation Stiftung Lesen three times for her radio features about cultural history.^[1] Her novel Identitti was shortlisted for the German Book Prize in 2021.

Publications

Books published in English

• Rape. From Lucretia to #MeToo, Verso Books, Brooklyn (NY) / London, 2019, ISBN 978-1-78663-750-5 (German original: Vergewaltigung. Aspekte eines Verbrechens.).^[22]
• Identitti, Astra Publishing House, 2022, ISBN 978-1-6626-0130-9.

Books in German

• Vergewaltigung. Aspekte eines Verbrechens. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-96054-023-6.^[23]
• Vulva – die Enthüllung des unsichtbaren Geschlechts. Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8031-3629-9.
• co-authored by Jasna Strick, Nicole von Horst and Yasmina Banaszczuk: "Ich bin kein Sexist, aber ...". Sexismus erlebt, erklärt und wie wir ihn beenden. Orlanda Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-944666-00-6.
• Identitti. Roman. Carl Hanser Verlag, München 2021, ISBN 978-3-446-26921-7.
• Über Emily Brontë. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2022, ISBN 978-3-462-00366-6.

Audio books

• Sternenkinder sterben schöner, later called Aliens sind auch nur Menschen, Director: Leonhard Koppelmann (WDR 2009)^[24]
• LoveArtLab Rules, Director: Ulrich Bassenge (WDR 2010)
• Post Porn Panik, Director: Leonhard Koppelmann (WDR 2012)^[25]
• Gott ist tot. Wirklich. Director: Martin Zylka, 55 Min. (WDR 2015)^[26]
• Identitti. Director: Eva Solloch, 52 Min. (WDR 2022)^[27][28]

Articles in newspapers, journals and anthologies

• Zuhause. In: Fatma Aydemir, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah (Hrsg.): Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum. Ullstein fünf, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96101-036-3.
• From 2017 to 2019, Sanyal wrote the column Kolumne „Mithulogie" in Die Tageszeitung (taz)
• In 2019/2020, she wrote for The Guardian.^[29]

Links

• Literature by and about Mithu Sanyal in the German National Library catalogue
• Mithu Sanyal at perlentaucher.de – das Kulturmagazin (in German)
• Website von Mithu M. Sanyal

References