Organizer: Peter Ogunniran
Contact the Seminar OrganizersDisplacement, Identity, and Colonial Legacies: Literary works and Global Refugee Crises.
According to the United Nations over 110 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, human rights violation among other issues. Furthermore, there are millions of internally displaced persons worldwide, as well as millions that are stateless, denied nationality and thus access to basic human rights. In 2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”, underlining the significance and relevance of global refugee crises in the literary world.
This seminar aims to explore the global refugee crises, with a specific focus on the historical legacies of colonialism and their continued impact on displacement. The seminar will delve into discussions depicting the complex realities faced by refugees who find themselves caught between cultures, continents, and histories. Gurnah’s literary contributions, among others, provide a window into the emotional and psychological struggles of those who have been uprooted, offering invaluable perspectives that are highly relevant in today’s world of increasing displacement.
The seminar will seek to analyze the fundamental causes behind the global refugee crises, focusing the intertwined legacies of colonialism, civil conflict, and environmental degradation. It will also explore the ways literature illuminate these issues through the portrayal of displacement and identity, while also examining the broader socio-political and psychological implications of the refugee experience, particularly in relation to the cultural and geographical divides that refugees must navigate.
Papers may address issues such as:
According to the United Nations over 110 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, human rights violation among other issues. Furthermore, there are millions of internally displaced persons worldwide, as well as millions that are stateless, denied nationality and thus access to basic human rights. In 2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”, underlining the significance and relevance of global refugee crises in the literary world.
This seminar aims to explore the global refugee crises, with a specific focus on the historical legacies of colonialism and their continued impact on displacement. The seminar will delve into discussions depicting the complex realities faced by refugees who find themselves caught between cultures, continents, and histories. Gurnah’s literary contributions, among others, provide a window into the emotional and psychological struggles of those who have been uprooted, offering invaluable perspectives that are highly relevant in today’s world of increasing displacement.
The seminar will seek to analyze the fundamental causes behind the global refugee crises, focusing the intertwined legacies of colonialism, civil conflict, and environmental degradation. It will also explore the ways literature illuminate these issues through the portrayal of displacement and identity, while also examining the broader socio-political and psychological implications of the refugee experience, particularly in relation to the cultural and geographical divides that refugees must navigate.
Papers may address issues such as:
- literature and forced displacement across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and especially, in post-colonial states
- the portrayal of themes of exile, displacement, and the search for belonging
- the (dis)integration of displaced people by host societies as depicted in literary works.