Contemporary Representations of Forced Migration in Europe: Beyond Regime and Refuge (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Human Rights)

This book engages with current debates around refugeedom by examining cultural production that represents and interrogates the construction of refugees and the refugee experience on the borders of contemporary Europe. The refugee subject is produced by discursive regimes and border practices inherited from colonial projects that construct the diametrically opposed concepts of citizen and refugee, and their attendant administrative sub-categories. In the early twenty-first century these categories have been strengthened by the politicisation of forced migration and the hardening of ‘Fortress Europe’. While the predominant response to the increasing numbers of refugees seeking asylum in Europe has been to harden the borders (regime), on the one hand, or to stress the common humanity of those displaced (refuge), on the other, this volume argues that both approaches result in refugees becoming objectified, othered, and abstracted as vectors ofexile. It explores what recent cultural production can achieve in engaging with and representing issues of dispossession, detention and resettlement, and probes the limits of artistic potential to mediate the refugee experience. It examines transnational approaches to cultural production that both occupy and exceed the borders of Europe, with a focus on borderscapes, spaces of detention, and (neo-)colonialism. Bringing together original contributions from an international range of scholars, it analyses contemporary textual and visual representations of forced migration to argue that other forms of solidarity and hospitality towards refugees in Europe and beyond must be possible. Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter The Limitations of Art Narratives of European Hostipitality Troubling Categories Resisting Refugee Narratability Overview of the Volume References Part I: Art and Activism by and with Refugees Chapter 2: The Trojans Project: Therapeutic Drama from Syria to Scotland Chapter The Project’s Background and Aims Charlotte Eagar and William Stirling (Producers) ‘We Wanted the Scottish Audiences to Know That We Are Not Here on Vacation’ Heba Alwadi, Performer ‘There is a little difference between love and pity’ Essam Rabie, Performer ‘Art and Drama Are a Safer Way to Help Millions Understand the Worst Tragedy Ever in an Hour or So’ Sana’a Al Froukh, Performer References Chapter 3: Channelling and Challenging the ‘imperative to tell’: Reflections on Negotiating Representations of Refugeeness from Practice-Based Performance Research Introduction Critical Responses to the Staging of Suffering Resisting the Presentation of Individual Suffering Examining the Burden of Representation Artistic Interventions as Self-representation Conclusion References Chapter 4: ‘To live well is to story well’: Co-writing and Polyphonic Writing with Denmark’s Asylum Community ‘Start here’ Polyphonic Writing, Performance Writing, and Epistemic Injustice ‘B/ordering’: Trampoline House and the Danish Asylum System Writing Workshops, Documenta 15, This Is a Guest Book ‘To live well is to story well’: Writing Polyphonically Widening Space: ‘It helped me to bring out my story’ References Chapter 5: Life in Detention: Journey and Border National Borders: Unknowns Forms of Detention: Asylum and Refugee Camps Detention Internal Borders: Detention, Labels Internal Borders: Integration, Theatrical Practice References Chapter 6: Carceral Witnessing and the Spatial Imagination Introduction Immigration Detention and Carceral Witnessing ‘Detained Voices’ and Mobilising Access to Immigration Detention Articulating ‘Refusal’ in Witness Demands Listening as a Spatial-Political Practice in Detained Voices Transforming Silence into Action (Counter) Infrastructural Demands Building Solidarities in the Space ‘in-between’ Conclusion References Reports, Media Sources, and Related Sources Detained Voices Part II: Challenging Representations of Refugees Chapter 7: ‘She is the meteor and I, her space’: Co-Becoming and Biopolitical Trauma in Chris Abani’s Becoming Abigail Introduction Misreading Abigail: The Biopolitics of Compassion Encountering Abigail: Transubstantiation and Co-Becoming Theorising Abigail: Co-constitution and Corporeal Vulnerability Seeing Abigail: Reading Criticality and Mapping Becoming Honouring Abigail: Conclusion References Chapter 8: Unsettled: Narrative Strategies in Exhibitions About the ‘Refugee Crisis’ Genres of Refugee Crisis Narrative Laboratory of Dilemmas: A Fake Document of Its Time Passage and Love Story: Acting the Part Barca Nostra: Unreliable Narrators and Uncanny Dockings Conclusion: Unsettling Catharses References Chapter 9: Archaeologies of Nonentity in Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope Introduction: Contexts of Enquiry ‘In the Shadow of Bright Policy Lights’ Nordic Hospitality Etymologies of Dwelling Voice, Authority, and Authenticity Conclusion References Chapter 10: Beyond Objectifying the Humane: Memory in Media and Political Genres Introduction Genre, Objectification and Memory Objectifying and De-objectifying the Humane Exodus—Our Journey to Europe Parliamentary Debates on Syrian Refugees Discussion and Concluding Remarks Transcription Key References Chapter 11: Wolves in the Sanctuary: Ecopolitics and Forced Migration in the Literature of the Anthropocene Chapter Migrants and Wolves in Germany Roland Schimmelpfennig and László Krasnahorkai Wolves and Migration in the UK: From Dracula to Sarah Hall References Chapter 12: Remapping the Borderlands of Britain: The Calais ‘Jungle’ and the Enduring Legacy of Imperial Frontier Policing Chapter Borderlands and Spaces of Exception: The “Calais Jungle” and the Reverberation of Imperial Spaces of Belonging At the Borderland, Figures of the Intimate Stranger and Celebrations of Britishness Conclusion References Index This book engages with current debates around refugeedom by examining cultural production that represents and interrogates the construction of refugees and the refugee experience on the borders of contemporary Europe.The refugee subject is produced by discursive regimes and border practices inherited from colonial projects that construct the diametrically opposed concepts of citizen and refugee, and their attendant administrative sub-categories. In the early twenty-first century these categories have been strengthened by the politicisation of forced migration and the hardening of Fortress Europe. While the predominant response to the increasing numbers of refugees seeking asylum in Europe has been to harden the borders (regime), on the one hand, or to stress the common humanity of those displaced (refuge), on the other, this volume arguesthat both approachesresultin refugees becomingobjectified, othered, and abstractedasvectors of exile.Itexploreswhat recent cultural production can achieve in engaging with and representing issues of dispossession, detention and resettlement, and probesthe limits of artistic potential to mediate the refugee experience.It examinestransnational approaches to cultural production that both occupy and exceed the borders of Europe, with a focus on borderscapes, spaces of detention, and(neo-)colonialism. Bringing together original contributions from an international range of scholars,itanalysescontemporary textual and visual representations of forced migration to argue that other forms of solidarity and hospitality towards refugees in Europe and beyond must be possible.