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- Convenors:
-
Anna Sofia Churchill
(KU Leuven)
Olga Husch (JLU Giessen UCP Lisbon)
Sonja Ruud (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
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- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
Countering exclusionary notions of national literature, this panel centres writings by authors rendered out-of-place by the nation-state, exploring how literary production in contexts of displacement can unwrite established forms of literature and redefine belonging outside of nationalist terms.
Long Abstract:
Traditionally, the Western literary canon has predominantly consisted of authors whose personal identities and writings conform and contribute to collective imaginings of national identity. It has only been in recent decades that writers who would have previously been excluded because of their race, ethnic origin, or migration status have started to be included in national literatures. However, this inclusion normally only facilitates space for those who are already commercially successful authors. Both the publishing industry and academic study frequently overlook texts written from the bottom-up – that is to say, works by writers who are liminally situated in the margins of national belonging, created without intervention or mediation by more established interlocutors. Focusing on contexts of “displacement,” this interdisciplinary panel explores writings by diverse authors who are rendered out-of-place by the nation-state system, through migrantization, (settler) colonialism, and racialization. Inviting contributions from across the Humanities and Social Sciences which examine the form and content of such literary texts as well as the social processes involved in producing them, it seeks to dismantle hegemonic frameworks in which literature is created, perceived and studied. Encouraging dialogue with decolonial, postcolonial and feminist theories and Indigenous worldviews, the panel explores how such literary production in contexts of displacement can unwrite established forms of literature and dominant logics of knowledge production. At the same time, it considers how these modes of writing can afford new narrations of multivalent cultural knowledge and heritage, redefining belonging outside of nationalist terms.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper Short Abstract:
This paper critically examines the degree to which a co-produced, arts-based ethnography challenged hegemonic structures in knowledge and cultural production. The reflections focus on the creation of a song- and storybook which foregrounds Kurdish women and their engagement across national, gendered, and artistic boundaries.
Paper Abstract:
This paper reflects on the process of publishing 'Kurdische Musikerinnen in Deutschland: A Song-and Storybook'. The work weaves together different genres of writing and media to produce a multivocal expression of what it means to be a Kurdish woman in Germany’s musical landscape. Co-producing this knowledge in literary and musical forms explored the possibilities and challenges of postcolonial, feminist ethnographic writing practice.
The book consists of three components: an autobiographical account of singer and activist Sheyda Ghavami, short informational texts presenting ethnographic insights on gender and Kurdish artistic production, and 14 musical works contributed by our interlocutors. We presented the musical repertoire through multiple mediations: sheet music notation, transliterated texts, and audio recordings of the spoken texts and music performed by our interlocutors. This mosaic of first-hand story-telling, ethnographic theory, and artistic representation preserves individual voices and allows conflicting interpretations to sit side-by-side.
This kaleidoscopic form suited the content. As one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without a state, Kurds constantly redefine their multiple belongings beyond national borders. Kurdish cultural production similarly works across generic and national boundaries (Schäfers 2022). Co-production and arts-based methods offer the possibility to ethically explore these life stories, especially in contexts of displacement and diasporic exchange. These approaches seek to dissolve the subject-object divide and foreground polyphony, challenging epistemological hierarchies of what counts as “knowledge”. Nevertheless, our process of ‘translating women’s lives’ (Behar 1993) brought to the surface forces of racialisation, patriarchy, and economic precarity that were not so easily dismantled.
Paper Short Abstract:
This paper introduces ‘Migration Songs,’ a project developed by Marieke Slovin Lewis and Sarah Reader Harris. Lewis and Harris volunteered from January 2017 through March 2020 to offer weekly poetry and songwriting sessions for residents of the center to create literature and music from their migration stories. They composed poetry and music in 11 languages with participants from 18 countries. The project culminated in a collaborative publication called ‘On the Move: Poems and Songs of Migration’ (Lewis, Harris, and Residents, 2020). This work represents a way that participatory art can be employed to build connection, community, inclusion, and a sense of belonging for people creating a new life. Within the context of human rights, this project became a way to promote recognition, participation, and communication for asylum seekers, whose voices are often missing from migration narratives.
Paper Abstract:
On a winter day in Brussels, an Armenian woman wrote a phrase in her mother tongue on a sheet of paper taped to a brick wall. Her words translated into English as “let the smile always be independent of nationality.” We wrote a song together about the importance of creating a sense of belonging and community that is free from the limitations of xenophobia, borders, and nationalities. This song was one of dozens I co-created with asylum seekers on Monday afternoons at the Fedasil Arrival Centre in a project that came to be called “Migration Songs,” which I developed with poet and writer Sarah Reader Harris. We volunteered together for several years, offering weekly poetry and songwriting sessions where we worked collaboratively with residents of the center to compose songs from their migration stories. Our goal was to create a welcoming space where residents could meet as equals, share migration and life stories, and create music together. We also posted a poetry wall with poems in several languages. In this paper, I will illustrate how these sessions became a way to create a sense of inclusion and belonging within this liminal existence, a space where traditional narratives around migration, nationalism, and what it means to be human can be reimagined and rewritten. Within the context of human rights, this project became a way to promote recognition, participation, and communication for asylum seekers, whose voices are often missing from migration narratives.
Paper Short Abstract:
The presentation examines political dissidents and their memoirs as instruments for dewriting and reframing the meaning of hostile borders and borderlands in Finnish and European contexts in 20th and 21st centuries.
Paper Abstract:
The paper examines borderland writing cultures as an instrument for dewriting European borderlands. It asks, how borderland writing cultures address adverse realities of the so-called ‘dark borders’(Auerbach 2011) – hostile social, cultural, and physical borderland environments, borders, and bordering processes – and function as an instrument for reframing their meaning.
The presentation focuses on writings of political dissidents who represented radical political left in the 20th century Finland. The dissident writers had political connections across the Finnish-Russian border, and they were perceived politically dubious by the State Police of Finland. In the presentation, dissident writing is analyzed through the lens of ‘politics of memory’ and with a concept ‘vernacular memory’. The study reveals the vernacular memory of survival, identity, and agency deeply affected by dark borders and bordering processes in the Finnish society and culture. The study forms one historical context for dark borders in contemporary Europe that are activated by the present political tensions.
The presentation analyzes memoirs of political dissidents published 1920s-2010s. The materials also include authors’ ego-documents and official documents concerning political dissidents and left-wing activists in Peoples’ Archive, Labour Archive, and National Archive in Finland.