20.01.2022
The Vulnerability of Rebels and Refugees: A Critical Study of Selected Literary Works, 1.00 p.m. – 2.30 p.m. CET
A talk by Fathima M (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Speaker
Fathima M is a doctoral candidate in English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Texas at Austin in the academic year 2017-18. Her areas of interest are American Literature, Canadian Literature and literary cultures of the Global South.
This paper intends to study the co-relation between state-sponsored violence and the vulnerability of ‘minority’ and dissenters through the vulnerability of their bodies during wars and conflicts. A very good example of this vulnerability is depicted in Michael Ondaatje’s novel Anil Ghost (2000) in which state-sponsored crimes were located through a dead body and the mainstream narrative around it was challenged. The Sri-Lankan civil war that targeted the Tamils there was a war for political self-determination and representation in which rebels were killed by the state to suppress the dissent. In such cases, the vast power gap between the state paramilitary forces and the rebels is huge. The often distorted version of truth that the state propagates further reiterates this power hierarchy and its impact on vulnerable individuals and their ‘bodies’.
ECTS points for students of the University of Tübingen: By attending the talks held during the winter term and submitting an essay on a chosen topic, students can obtain 1 ECTS point. See Alma.
Another aspect to look at in order to locate this vulnerability is the harrowing process that asylum seekers have to go through in order to find refuge. The vulnerable position of asylum seekers often puts them in a rather precarious situation and at times people even end up ending their lives to escape the tyranny of the process. Dina Nayeri’s novel Refuge (2017) is a good example in contemporary times to locate this social ‘disability’ and vulnerability that traces the lives of Iranians seeking refuge in the Netherlands and commiting suicides out of sheer hopelessness. Valeria Luiselli’s book A Life in 40 Questions (2017) is yet another relevant text that deals with the stories of undocumented migrant children in the United States.
To substantiate this argument further, this paper will delve into the unravelling of state-sponsored killings in Anil’s Ghost, the vulnerability of asylum seekers and suicides in Refuge, and the brutal treatment of undocumented children in A Life in 40 Questions.
ECTS points for students of the University of Tübingen: By attending the talks held during the winter term and submitting an essay on a chosen topic, students can obtain 1 ECTS point. See Alma.
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