230631 Fictions of Migration: Britain and Beyond (S) (WiSe 2010/2011)

Migration, which is a topic in the media every day, has a long and varied history. For millennia, people have migrated for various reasons: voluntarily and involuntarily, motivated by personal hopes and needs or by economic, political or religious/ideological pressure; migration can be looked at from the point of view of the country from which people emigrate or of that to which they immigrate, and we can study its various phases from pre-migration to the actual journey and various post-migration stages. Whatever kind of migration people experience, it will affect their identities and relationships, and it may involve challenges and successes as well as feelings of loss and dislocation. In this seminar, we will chart the field of forms and effects of migration in the context of Britain and the Commonwealth (or, previously, the Empire). We will investigate the ways in which narratives have put the experience of different forms and phases of migration into literary form. There are three set text at this point (please buy your own copy and read the novels in the order listed below). Research on further primary texts will be done in group work, and students will decide which texts we will read after the Christmas break.

Bibliography

David Dabydeen, The Counting House
Rose Tremain, The Colour
Meera Syal, Anita and Me