A Literary Anthropology of Migration and Belonging Roots, Routes, and Rhizomes

This collection pushes migration and "the minor" to the fore of literary anthropology. What happens when authors who thematize their “minority” background articulate notions of belonging, self, and society in literature? The contributors use “interface ethnography” and “fieldwork on foot” to analyze a broad selection of literature and processes of dialogic engagement. The chapters discuss German-speaking Herta Müller’s perpetual minority status in Romania; Bengali-Scottish Bashabi Fraser and the potentiality of poetry; vagrant pastoralism and “heritagization” in Puglia, Italy; the self-representation of European Muslims post 9/11 in Zeshan Shakar’s acclaimed Norwegian novel; the autobiographical narratives of Loveleen Rihel Brenna and the artist collective Queendom in Norway; the “immigrant” as a permanent guest in Spanish-language children’s literature; and Slovenian roots-searching in Argentina. This anthology examines the generative and transformative potentials of storytelling, while illustrating that literary anthropology is well equipped to examine the multiple contexts that literature engages. Chapter 4 of this book is available open access under a CC By 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Literary Anthropology, Migration, and Belonging

Literary Anthropology: Literature as Source Material and Literary Production

The Social Role and Potentiality of Literature

Chapter 2: Take a Walk on the Shepherd Side: Transhumant Narratives and Representations

Transhumance: Between Practices and Words

Just A Deleuzian Glance

Transhumant Narratives and Representations

The Politics and Poetics of Heritagization

IL Tratturo: A Novel from the Limits

Wandering Storytelling, Transhumant Images and Other Vagrant Digressions

Between History, Literature and Ethnographic Restitution

Chapter 3: In Search of a Suitable Home or the Perpetual Minority Status: Herta Müller's Case

Introduction

Challenging Arborescent Structures and Deterritorialization

The Childhood as a Burden of the Cradle

The Maturity as the Burden of Altered Relations

The Burden of the Haunting of the Other Country

Minority Among Minority and Minority Among Majority

Corpus

Chapter 4: When Author Meets Audience: The Potentiality of Literature to Re-Narrate Selves, Belonging, and National Community

Introduction

"They Are Maybe the Most Defined Human Beings in Norway, but Defined By People From the Outside": Re-Narrating Selves and Belonging

The Great Immigrant Novel, Or Rather Homestead Prose From the Satellite Town? the Recreation of a National Community

Conclusion

Chapter 5: Biography, Descent, and Slovenization: Literature and Slovenian Migrants in Argentina

Introduction

Migration and Literature

The Slovenian Sociopolitical Context

Two Slovenian Family Biographies in the Current Argentinian Context

Final Remarks

Chapter 6: Narratives of Competence and Confidence: Self, Society, and Belonging in Norway

Introduction: Literature and Ethnographic Objects

Self, Individual, and Society

"Minority" Existence and Society

Self, Belonging, and Public Discourse

Conclusion: Socially Produced and Socially Productive: Confidence and Competence

Chapter 7: From Bengal to Scotland: Hybridity, Borders and National Narratives

Poetry and Literary Anthropology

Hybridity and Cosmopolitanism

Borders and Displacement

Reframing Scotland's Pedagogical National Narrative

Reframing Scotland's Performative National Discourse

Writing in a Minor Key: English (and Scots)

Conclusion

Chapter 8: The Production of the Immigrant as a Perpetual Guest

Bordering Tropes

(Im)Possible belongings

Postscript

Cicilie Fagerlid was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Library Science at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, at the time of writing. Her previous research includes performance poetry on cosmopolitan and working-class Paris and the creation of new ways of being British Asian, both at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, Norway, where she has taught extensively. Currently, she writes ethnography from public libraries.

Michelle A. Tisdel holds a doctorate in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, USA. Her research interests include heritage production and discourses of belonging in Norway and Cuba. She conducted long-term research on Cuban museums and Afro-Cuban heritage production. Tisdel works as a research librarian at the National Library of Norway and specializes in migration and heritage themes.