Table Of ContentTheManyVoicesofEurope
Culture & Conflict
Edited by
Isabel Capeloa Gil, Catherine Nesci and
Paulo de Medeiros
Editorial Board
ArjunAppadurai⋅ClaudiaBenthien⋅ElisabethBronfen⋅JoyceGoggin⋅
BishnupriyaGhosh⋅LawrenceGrossberg⋅AndreasHuyssen⋅AnsgarNünning⋅
NaomiSegal⋅MárcioSeligmann-Silva⋅AntónioSousaRibeiro⋅RobertoVecchi.
SamuelWeber⋅LilianeWeissberg⋅ChristophWulf⋅LongxiZhang
Volume 15
ISBN978-3-11-061526-5
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-064578-1
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-064610-8
ISSN2194-7104
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationNumber:2019949479
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de.
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This book is dedicated in loving memory to our dear colleague, mentor, and
friend, Gisela Brinker-Gabler, whose warmth and wisdom have inspired many
andwillbeforevermissed.
Contents
GiselaBrinker-GablerandNicoleShea
Introduction 1
Part I:CrossingBorders: (Re)configuring Identities
VanessaD.Plumly
LinkedSecurityand“RhetoricalEthics”:BreakingFramesandOpening
CracksofIdentificationthroughtheNarrativeFissuresofOlumide
PopoolaandAnnieHolmes’sbreach(2016) 13
RebeccaForney
Negotiation/négationofDoubleNamesinAssiaDjebar’s“Lecorpsde
Félicie” 30
NasimDarouie
ImageandIdentityintheDiasporicGraphicAutobiographyPersepolis 40
Part II:Shifting Frontiersof NationalBelonging
GiovanniDettori
NewCulturesofItalianMigration 53
JocelynWright
IntegrationandtheFrenchBanlieue:ReadingAhmedDjouder’s
Désintégration(2006)andPhilippeFaucon’sDésintégration(2012) 62
GiselaBrinker-Gabler
TranslocalConstellations:NavigationsofMobilityandEmplacementand
EmineSevgiÖzdamar’sStory“TheCourtyardintheMirror” 73
Part III:ANewEuropeOn DifferentGrounds
JeroenGerrits
RaúlRuiz’sAdaptationofTheBlindOwl:AnExilicModelforEurope 85
VIII Contents
RenataSchellenberg
ThePost-YugoslavLiteratureofDubravkaUgrešić 103
ElkeSegelcke
OccidentandOrient:“PoeticsofMovement”intheWorksofZafer
Şenocak 115
Part IV: MaxiObexer,Playwright, Novelist,Activist
FriederikeEigler
RefugeeandMigrantVoicesOnandOfftheDocumentaryTheaterStage:
RecentWorksbyMaxiObexer 129
MaxiObexer
TheLongestSummer 150
AstridWeigert
“RevealingThatWhichIsHidden:”InterviewwithMaxi(Margareth)
Obexer:Playwright,Novelist,Activist 159
NotesonContributors 171
Index 175
GiselaBrinker-Gablerand NicoleShea
Introduction
Aswecomeclosertothebeginningofthethirddecadeofthetwenty-firstcentury,
the lives of millions of people have been shaped by the experiences of mobility
andmigration.Forthefirsttimeinhumanhistory,allcontinentsareinvolvedin
themassmovementsofpeople.Thisanthologyattendstothe criticalmomentof
these wide-ranging processes with a specific focus on the accelerated pace of
changes across Europe in recent years as well as the emerging interactions be-
tweenEuropeandtheworldshapingnewformsofliteratureandculture,theories
andcriticism.Theessaysofthiscollectionexploretheevolving,richbodyofcon-
temporaryculturalpracticesaswellasreflectionsonacommonEuropeanproject
of diversity. The authors herein interrogate new dialogic dynamics between and
acrossculturesinEuropeaswellasEurope and itsrelationshipswiththeworld.
The Many Voices of Europe includes essays by promising junior researchers and
senior scholars presented at two international conferences organized by the
CouncilforEuropeanStudies:aconferenceinGlasgow,UnitedKingdom,in2017
andinChicago,USA,in2018.
The unique contribution of our collection in the field of literary studies of
Europeliesinits interdisciplinary,transnationalandcomparative perspective,
which will invite manyreaders fromdiverse disciplinary directionsand stimu-
late new research on the ambitious writing and thinking across borders of the
manyvoicesofEuropetoday.
AcrossEurope,therearecontinuouscallsfortraditionalnationalidentities
as well as proposals for new forms of trans/national/cultural identities and
communities, assertions of regionalized identities, proclamations of multicul-
turalism and declarations of multilingualism. Several essays in this collection
attendtothiscriticalmomentwiththeanalysisoftherecentliteratureofmigra-
tionasa(re)writingofEuropeansubjects.Fromavarietyoftheoreticalandcrit-
ical standpoints that have been developed in the last decades, they engage
many questions. How are migrants writing new identities into and against the
old national (meta)narratives? Through what means are they interrogating the
grounds of multiple identity constructions? What experimentations with form
inliterature–e.g.thegraphicnovelorinavant-gardefilm–emergeinthisun-
stablecontext?Finally,whatimpactmightnewformsofsubjectivityhaveupon
the(de)constructionofnationalidentitiesinthenewEurope?
A transcultural reflection on new forms of mobile and migrant literature
and a European project of diversity requires a careful consideration of the ter-
minologyusedandtheconceptsapplied,aswellasanawarenessoftheorigins
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110645781001
2 GiselaBrinker-GablerandNicoleShea
and motivations for particular approaches. Therefore, this collection also at-
tendstothefollowingquestions:Howdocriticalapproaches,suchastransna-
tionalism and transculturality, cosmopolitanism and hybridity, blur political
borders and cultural edges and call attention to the reality of cultural, artistic
and political diffusion, influence and integration of a new Europe thereby af-
fectingsocietiesatlarge?Howdorecenttheoreticalreflectionsonliteraturesof
migration and their possible contributions to a cultural production of Europe
influence nations and their partnerships within and without, that is, partner-
ships with their neighbors, and the relationships with the world moving for-
ward? The essays of The Many Voices of Europe respond to expectation and
demand for a Europe becoming more diverse and inclusive, reclaiming spaces
of creation and representation for trans/national subjects and underrepre-
sentedgroups.Theneedfordiversityandinclusionisallthemoreimportantin
this political moment of rising xenophobia and increased challenges of reli-
giousandcivilizationalconflictsintoday’sEurope.
1 Crossing borders, (re)configuring identities
IncurrentWesterndiscourse,especiallyinEuropeandtheUnitedStates,secu-
rityandhow to secure bordershave takencenterstage asfundamental topics.
Asweexperiencetoday(inlate2018),thealarminganddistressingnewsofthe
move of thousands of immigrants, named the “caravan,” which keeps the
Mexican-USborderinthenews,and,in2016,thechannelbetweenFranceand
EnglandandthebordercityofCalaishavebecometopnews.Migrantsandref-
ugees streaming into Europe since 2015 have clustered around the French site
and built a tent city known as “The Jungle,” hoping to settle in Britain. The
publisher Meike Ziervogel commissioned Olumide Popoola and Annie Holmes
togotothecampandcollectstoriesofpeopletherewiththeirhopes,escapes,
desperationsandsurvivalstrategies.VanessaPlumblyfocusesonPopoolaand
Holmes’ book breach, a polyphonic fictional text that incorporates eight short
storiesbasedoninterviewscompletedin“TheJungle”andarticulatestheambi-
guityofa“borderfence.”Thepoliticallyunsettlingcollectionwithdiverseand
nuanced stories aroused immediate attention and inspired debates on how to
dealwiththishumanitarianchallengeandhowtoshoweffectiveengagement.
Drawingonnewnarrativemodelsthatemphasizea“breach”orcracksandfis-
sures as powerful tools for recognizing and understanding trans/national sub-
jectsandspaces,Plumbly’sessaydemonstratesthepositiveaffectandeffectof
expandingnetworksandconnectionsforanewlyconstructedalteredreality.
