This session of the Creating Inclusive Learning Environments series explores the experience of forced migration through refugee writing and storytelling. We look at the entanglement of literary and legal technologies in the asylum decision-making process as it operates today in juridical, advocacy and creative circles and, in particular, at the narrative constraints placed on forced migrants who must conform to a particular ‘story’ of persecution. Through readings of literary representations of refugees by contemporary writers, we consider the role of (self)narrativization in the context of humanitarian advocacy and as counter-narratives to dominant media representations.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this session, you will have:
· considered the role of the asylum ‘story’ in the process of refugee status determination
· explored how contemporary writers have engaged with refugee stories
· analyzed refugee writers’ approach to self-narrativisation