Unaccompanied Minor

Since its publication, the age of the protagonist in Christian Kracht’s Faserland has been widely discussed. While this discussion has often been accompanied by a devaluation of the novel, the childlike aspects of the first-person narrator and the role of childhood memories have not yet been systematically examined. This essay analyses the extent to which the idealisation of childhood proves to be regressive and futile. The investigation of the connection between the literary motif of the eternal child and current criticisms of tendencies towards infantilisation can help explain the polemical reactions of the literary public following the novel’s publication.