There and Away

Topobiographies

Rainer Nägele's There and Away charts a series of autobiographical topographies or "topobiographies" that map a life beginning in a working-class village in Liechtenstein to the places he traveled as an émigré, student, and scholar (Innsbruck, Göttingen, Paris, California, Baltimore). Located at the nexus of Freud's elaboration of the child's game of fort (away) and da (there) and Benjamin's thought-images of his Berlin childhood, the eight placed-based vignettes of There and Away do not tell a life story but rather bring together momentary traces of encounters into a constellation, in which aspects of Nägele's life became legible to him while illuminating wider historical configurations.

Nägele's topobiographies emerge from encounters and re-encounters with memories of specific places as they interact with significant texts by Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, and Walter Benjamin. There and Away thus meditates on what it means to return to the same places and the same texts at different points in time, each encounter at once familiar and revealing something utterly unique.

Contributor: Jason Kavett (Edited and translated by), Edith Anna Kunz (Edited and translated by), Hansjörg Quaderer (Edited by)

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.