Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is enco... more Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is encountered in the form of physical barriers such as security fences, heavily policed coastal waters and the boundaries of the nation-state in Europe with its powerful legacy of coloniality pushing borders further and further into Africa. Although the majority of those migrating in Africa move within the continent, sufficient numbers have attempted to enter Europe and the US to the extent that this movement of people, together with those from the Middle East, has produced a far-right populist backlash constructed around the ‘immigrant’ who is seen as part of a calculated replacement of ‘ethnic’ (white) Europeans or, in the US, as an agent of ‘white genocide’. A brief exploration of this phase of populism will constitute the opening sections of the chapter, followed by an analysis of Those Who Jump (2016) and The Gurugu Pledge (2017), a film and a novel set on the African/EU border in Morocco. The final section will examine African Titanics (2014 [2008]), a novel which reflects on the ‘seduction’ of the African migrant by Europe, the travails of the desert journey and the dereliction of care at sea.
Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
The final chapter deals with possibly the most protracted displacements of our time, both histori... more The final chapter deals with possibly the most protracted displacements of our time, both historic and continuing in the form of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Apart from the millions of refugees outside of Palestine, people within these territories face displacement and what are, effectively, borders on a daily basis in the form of checkpoints, roadblocks, body searches, curfews and the need for permits, all of which cause dislocation and, in the period since the construction of the security wall, have also separated people from their land, their work and their schools. No attempt will be made to add to the extensive literature on the politics of the Occupation but simply to examine its impact in terms of literary and cultural representation—the human factor. Together with two memoirs by Mourid Barghouti, three texts will be analysed as part of this examination: a short story by Liana Badr, “Other Cities” (2006) a novella, Minor Detail (2020 [2017]) by Adania Shibli, a...
Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is enco... more Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is encountered in the form of physical barriers such as security fences, heavily policed coastal waters and the boundaries of the nation-state in Europe with its powerful legacy of coloniality pushing borders further and further into Africa. Although the majority of those migrating in Africa move within the continent, sufficient numbers have attempted to enter Europe and the US to the extent that this movement of people, together with those from the Middle East, has produced a far-right populist backlash constructed around the ‘immigrant’ who is seen as part of a calculated replacement of ‘ethnic’ (white) Europeans or, in the US, as an agent of ‘white genocide’. A brief exploration of this phase of populism will constitute the opening sections of the chapter, followed by an analysis of Those Who Jump (2016) and The Gurugu Pledge (2017), a film and a novel set on the African/EU border in Morocco...
Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
Waiting and immobility, together with detainment, form the most common experience for most refuge... more Waiting and immobility, together with detainment, form the most common experience for most refugees when, or if, they manage to reach a place where they can be considered for asylum. This chapter focuses, initially, on two films—one a feature (Escape to Paradise, 2001), the other a documentary (La Forteresse, 2008)—both set in Switzerland in the first part of this century. Delay, obstruction and a culture of disbelief characterise their experience of seeking asylum in a convoluted and hostile system. The second half of the chapter concentrates upon an even greater culture of endless waiting, disbelief and hostility, this time in the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre, Papua New Guinea, which is, effectively, an Australian offshore prison for the warehousing of refugees. This experience is recorded in the remarkable ‘auto-ethnography’ of Behrouz Boochani: No Friend but the Mountains (2019).
Beast, Vermin, Insect-Hate Media and the Construction of the Enemy: The Case of Rwanda, 1990-1994... more Beast, Vermin, Insect-Hate Media and the Construction of the Enemy: The Case of Rwanda, 1990-1994 Roger Bromley For Emma and Jonah, children of hope Abstract This chapter was prompted by a poem by Sam Keen,'To Create an Enemy', in which the 'other'is ...
The aim of this article is to draw a few theoretical links between writing and revolution, whilst... more The aim of this article is to draw a few theoretical links between writing and revolution, whilst exploring how the acts of writing/witnessing/remembering can metaphorically ‘give memory a future’ in Paul Ricoeur’s words. The article situates the two memoirs of Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif Cairo: My City, Our Revolution and Syrian novelist Samar Yazbek A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution and their first-hand experience of the uprisings in Egypt and Syria within the genre of writing and memory. I argue that these writers combine reflexive observation with eyewitness testimony and in each there is a staging, a performative act of memory-making, in the sense that they are constructing a present for remembering, with the writer as witness within a ‘we-memory’ community. The writers are conscious of the historicity of the moment and are endeavouring to produce what might be called legacy writing.
Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is enco... more Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is encountered in the form of physical barriers such as security fences, heavily policed coastal waters and the boundaries of the nation-state in Europe with its powerful legacy of coloniality pushing borders further and further into Africa. Although the majority of those migrating in Africa move within the continent, sufficient numbers have attempted to enter Europe and the US to the extent that this movement of people, together with those from the Middle East, has produced a far-right populist backlash constructed around the ‘immigrant’ who is seen as part of a calculated replacement of ‘ethnic’ (white) Europeans or, in the US, as an agent of ‘white genocide’. A brief exploration of this phase of populism will constitute the opening sections of the chapter, followed by an analysis of Those Who Jump (2016) and The Gurugu Pledge (2017), a film and a novel set on the African/EU border in Morocco. The final section will examine African Titanics (2014 [2008]), a novel which reflects on the ‘seduction’ of the African migrant by Europe, the travails of the desert journey and the dereliction of care at sea.
Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
The final chapter deals with possibly the most protracted displacements of our time, both histori... more The final chapter deals with possibly the most protracted displacements of our time, both historic and continuing in the form of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Apart from the millions of refugees outside of Palestine, people within these territories face displacement and what are, effectively, borders on a daily basis in the form of checkpoints, roadblocks, body searches, curfews and the need for permits, all of which cause dislocation and, in the period since the construction of the security wall, have also separated people from their land, their work and their schools. No attempt will be made to add to the extensive literature on the politics of the Occupation but simply to examine its impact in terms of literary and cultural representation—the human factor. Together with two memoirs by Mourid Barghouti, three texts will be analysed as part of this examination: a short story by Liana Badr, “Other Cities” (2006) a novella, Minor Detail (2020 [2017]) by Adania Shibli, a...
Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is enco... more Displacement and borders have featured in the book so far, and in this chapter the border is encountered in the form of physical barriers such as security fences, heavily policed coastal waters and the boundaries of the nation-state in Europe with its powerful legacy of coloniality pushing borders further and further into Africa. Although the majority of those migrating in Africa move within the continent, sufficient numbers have attempted to enter Europe and the US to the extent that this movement of people, together with those from the Middle East, has produced a far-right populist backlash constructed around the ‘immigrant’ who is seen as part of a calculated replacement of ‘ethnic’ (white) Europeans or, in the US, as an agent of ‘white genocide’. A brief exploration of this phase of populism will constitute the opening sections of the chapter, followed by an analysis of Those Who Jump (2016) and The Gurugu Pledge (2017), a film and a novel set on the African/EU border in Morocco...
Narratives of Forced Mobility and Displacement in Contemporary Literature and Culture, 2021
Waiting and immobility, together with detainment, form the most common experience for most refuge... more Waiting and immobility, together with detainment, form the most common experience for most refugees when, or if, they manage to reach a place where they can be considered for asylum. This chapter focuses, initially, on two films—one a feature (Escape to Paradise, 2001), the other a documentary (La Forteresse, 2008)—both set in Switzerland in the first part of this century. Delay, obstruction and a culture of disbelief characterise their experience of seeking asylum in a convoluted and hostile system. The second half of the chapter concentrates upon an even greater culture of endless waiting, disbelief and hostility, this time in the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre, Papua New Guinea, which is, effectively, an Australian offshore prison for the warehousing of refugees. This experience is recorded in the remarkable ‘auto-ethnography’ of Behrouz Boochani: No Friend but the Mountains (2019).
Beast, Vermin, Insect-Hate Media and the Construction of the Enemy: The Case of Rwanda, 1990-1994... more Beast, Vermin, Insect-Hate Media and the Construction of the Enemy: The Case of Rwanda, 1990-1994 Roger Bromley For Emma and Jonah, children of hope Abstract This chapter was prompted by a poem by Sam Keen,'To Create an Enemy', in which the 'other'is ...
The aim of this article is to draw a few theoretical links between writing and revolution, whilst... more The aim of this article is to draw a few theoretical links between writing and revolution, whilst exploring how the acts of writing/witnessing/remembering can metaphorically ‘give memory a future’ in Paul Ricoeur’s words. The article situates the two memoirs of Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif Cairo: My City, Our Revolution and Syrian novelist Samar Yazbek A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution and their first-hand experience of the uprisings in Egypt and Syria within the genre of writing and memory. I argue that these writers combine reflexive observation with eyewitness testimony and in each there is a staging, a performative act of memory-making, in the sense that they are constructing a present for remembering, with the writer as witness within a ‘we-memory’ community. The writers are conscious of the historicity of the moment and are endeavouring to produce what might be called legacy writing.
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