Intersections of Money, Debt, and Uncertainty in Rabinovici’s Suche nach M.
Author: Amy Juhnke
William H. Carter
ABSTRACT:
This essay investigates the largely unexplored role of money and debt in Suche nach M., Doron Rabinovici’s first novel. Economic matters run throughout the text and are inextricably bound with representations of Schuld (guilt/debt) and Gewalt (force/violence). Money and debt are key to understanding the circumstances contributing to the development of Dani Morgenthau’s alter ego Mullemann and his curious theft of money owed another. Further, his disappearance at the end of the novel illustrates the economic concept of Knightian uncertainty, or immeasurable risk, and challenges the reader to contemplate a spectrum of endings to this complex tale of second-generation survivors.