Contemporary Refugee Literature

This book examines contemporary refugee narratives, and explores their power to challenge dominant representations while revealing their entanglement in neoliberal literary markets.

In the twenty-first century, millions have been forcibly displaced due to ethno-religious conflicts, socio-political instability, and economic crises, turning migration into a global phenomenon.

The traumatic realities of refugees - imprisonment, torture, loss, discrimination, and marginalisation - have increasingly become subjects of academic inquiry across multiple disciplines. Literature has also played a crucial role in representing these complexities, and offered fictionalised accounts of refugee experiences before, during, and after migration. This book critically examines contemporary refugee narratives, and highlights their potential to universalise the refugee experience. It argues that while contemporary refugee literature challenges dominant representations and reclaims subjectivity, it is also shaped by the Western literary marketplace, which refashions displacement into marketable narratives of resilience and redemption, tempering its radical potential and framing it within apolitical humanitarian discourse that prioritises empathy over structural critique.

The book calls for refugee narratives to resist market-driven expectations and engage in epistemic disobedience, challenging dominant frameworks that dictate how refugee experiences should be represented, understood, and consumed.

Autorentext

Sercan Hamza Bälama holds a PhD from Durham University, UK, and is currently an Associate Professor of English Literature at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Türkiye. His research focuses on Refugee Studies, Postcolonial Literatures, and Political Philosophy.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: Silent Stories Unveiled: Syrian Refugee Narratives in Contemporary Literature

Chapter 1: Escape from Aleppo by N. H. Senzai

Chapter 2. A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi

Chapter 3. Refugee by Alan Gratz

Chapter 4. The Beeker of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Chapter 5. Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

Part II: Crossing Continents: Exploring Refugee Narratives from Around the World

Chapter 6. Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah

Chapter 7. Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Chapter 8. What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers

Chapter 9. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Chapter 10. In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda

Conclusion

Index