'mit Zelt und Rucksack am Ufer der Duna' Zur Bedeutung des Neonomaden bei Bas Böttcher

In 2009, German spoken-word poet Bas Böttcher published his most recent volume of poetry; a slender book accompanied by a CD and entitled Neonomade. As a spoken-word poet who, in 2010 alone, combined numerous performances in German-speaking countries with international appearances in India, Namibia, Italy, Greece, France, Luxembourg and Canada, the eponymous neo-nomad can be interpreted as a reference to Böttcher’s own hectic tour schedule. Yet, given the prominent thematic role of mobility in Böttcher’s own work, the title also reflects a central thematic concern that Bartl has identified in the introduction to her edited volume Transitträume as a key characteristic of present-day society: mobility, life in transit (2009, 10). As members of today’s mobile society (Mobilitätsgesellschaft; Tully u. Baier 2006), in which concepts such as home, place, distance and proximity have acquired new meaning, Böttcher’s protagonists frequently find themselves confronted with redefined concepts of communication, inter-personal relationships and reality. In spite of the advent of numerous forms of virtual communication that allow for the separation of message and messenger, as well as messenger and recipient, reliable and effective communication still depends on the co-presence of all three elements (Urry in B J Sociol 54(2):155–173, 2003). Through a discussion of the volume’s title, I explain the importance of “new nomadism” for the communicatory success of the contemporary spoken-word poem.