Antje Rávic Strubel's Ambiguities of Identity as Social Disruption

This article examines intentional ambiguities of identity in four of Antje Rávic Strubel's novels: Offene Blende (2001, Open shutter), Snowed Under (2008, Unter Schnee, 2001), Tupolew 134 (2004, Tupolev 134), and Kältere Schichten der Luft (2007, Colder layers of air). Strubel's characters fight prescribed roles, travel in search of exits and loopholes, and take on different identities. Strubel plays with uncertainties in these characters to expose fractures in societal norms and traditions and to disrupt society's habitual ways of thinking about identity. Using these various ambiguities, she intentionally disrupts the realistic parameters she has set for her texts.