"Leaving and Remaining" – The Staging of Europe in the Work of Maxi Obexer

Nominated for the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Prize in 2017 with her novel-essay Europas längster Sommer the German speaking novelist and playwright Margareth "Maxi" Obexer explores in her work three key concepts, namely identity, migration and the staging of Europe through several artistical approaches and formats. The following article will retrace chronologically some of these migration movements and representations of Europe in order to show the development of these different genres in the work of the co-founder of NIDS – Neues Institut für Dramatisches Schreiben (New Institute for Dramatic Writing). It will be demonstrated that Obexer, starting from her personal migrant experience, progressively proceeds towards an engaged writing which – despite all the critique – in the end tries to defend a European utopia based on interpersonal relationships, hospitality and exchange.