The university as heterotopia in Tabea Mußgnug's Nachstes Semester wird alles anders...

Abstract

Nächstes Semester wird alles anders… (Next semester all will be different…, 2015) by Tabea Mußgnug is a student memoir that constructs the university as a Fou-cauldian heterotopia. The nameless first-person narrator, who functions as a per-sona for the author herself, tells us about her preoccupations, idiosyncrasies and anxieties, relating anecdotes from the student life of a millennial who does not seem to take her studies in the humanities or herself all too seriously. Her student memoir provides a fresh look at the university by shifting the focus of narration to a partly factual, partly ironical description of daily study routines, after-work life, and leisure time. Her confessional tone, irreverent attitude, and frequent use of clichés and stereotypes serve her narrative construction of authenticity. With Nächstes Semester wird alles anders… Mußgnug joins the ranks of those authors of campus fiction who have come to turn away from academia, emphasizing that there are more important and satisfactory things to do in life than studying or teaching at a university.