| Popis: |
What literary conventions best help us understand the migrant refugee’s claim for protection, and the terms on which law claims to offer it? One contender to have attracted attention recently is ‘bildungsroman’ (‘formation novel’): the genre of fiction concerned with a marginalized individual’s testing personal journey towards maturity, self-realization, and acceptance within a nation state. However, in light of UK legislation passed in 2022 apparently aimed at ensuring that migrant refugees who arrive illegally should not have any cause to hope for such acceptance, this paper proposes that we look instead to conventions associated with the ghost story. The article focuses its attention on the figure of the ghost as issuer of an unsettling reminder of unremedied injustice and moral duty: of a call to action that also inspires dread and consequent efforts to make it disappear and retreat to where it came from. These qualities are here considered as a basis for understanding the figure of the migrant refugee in law and in artistic depictions, including public performance (“The Walk,” 2021-22), photojournalism (“Risking the Channel ‘death route’ to Britain – a photo essay,” 2020) and visual art (“Dzhangal,” 2016-17). |
