Abstract
Refugees and asylum seekers have been the focus of political and social debates and developments in recent times. With increasing conflicts in several parts of the world, the number of displaced individuals, in search of a safe and new home, keeps growing. Memory plays a significant role in the ways in which refugees and asylum seekers rebuild their lives in the host nations. Memories of the sights and smells of the homeland live with the refugees through their gruelling journeys. Fiction opens up spaces of discussions on how homeland memories form an integral part of their lives away in the host lands. This paper would consider Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2019) and Nadia Hashimi’s When The Moon is Low (2015) to comprehend the role of memory and refugee experiences, and how these find reflection in fictional narratives. Behind the data and media news reports on the refugees and asylum seekers, are the human stories of loss, pain, suffering, and trauma. These are stories of humans in search of a host land that would help them reconstruct their lives. Fiction can be a constructive platform to initiate conversations and dialogues on the journeys of the people displaced due to conflict-ridden homelands. The use of unconventional narrative techniques and literary devices help in providing a voice to these displaced individuals, and form powerful, alternate narratives. This paper, through content analysis, attempts to understand how fictional narratives provide a glimpse into the lived experiences of the refugees and asylum seekers.
Presenters
Anindita ShomeAssistant Professr, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, VIT-AP University, Andhra Pradesh, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—The World on the Move: Understanding Migration in a New Global Age
KEYWORDS
Displacement, Fiction, Narratives, Refugees
