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Abstract
This volume studies immigrant and ethnic-minority writers in fourteen national contexts from a comparative perspective. When literary scholars historicise immigrant and ethnic-minority writing in their respective national contexts, they usually only focus on how this writing has become visible and how it has come to challenge the respective national literatures; they rarely tell us why this writing has remained invisible for such a long time in many of the contexts discussed here. Yet, as soon as we move beyond national contexts, this is the first question which comes to mind: How can we explain these differences, especially between countries that have very similar immigration histories? With this question in mind, we developed a comparative framework that would bring to light both of these perspectives in each chapter. The introduction serves to explain this framework as well as the selection of countries included in this volume.
Abstract
This essay explores the manifold, but seldom considered interactions between exile, gender and life writing. Since its beginnings, Exile Studies has worked with life-writing practices, but its use of biographical conventions has frequently been left unquestioned. Early research deemed gender to be irrelevant, while the autobiographical discourse of exiles reinforced stereotypical assumptions about men and women. Sustained engagement with women’s history and gender theory has altered and expanded concepts of exile and biography. At the same time, biographical approaches to exile can offer insightful, transcultural perspectives for Gender Studies.
Abstract
This essay explores the manifold, but seldom considered interactions between exile, gender and life writing. Since its beginnings, Exile Studies has worked with life-writing practices, but its use of biographical conventions has frequently been left unquestioned. Early research deemed gender to be irrelevant, while the autobiographical discourse of exiles reinforced stereotypical assumptions about men and women. Sustained engagement with women’s history and gender theory has altered and expanded concepts of exile and biography. At the same time, biographical approaches to exile can offer insightful, transcultural perspectives for Gender Studies.