In this article, I define migration literature as literature on the topic of migration and I argue that it is a sub-genre that exists in both various bodies of literature as well as various languages. In order to proof my point, I illustrate it with examples from contemporary texts on experiences of migration in German and English and focus on recurrent themes and motifs in them. In particular, I look at texts by writers living and working in Great Britain and Austria, i.e. by Monica Ali, Anna Kim, Timothy Mo, Caryl Phillips, Hamid Sadr, and Vladimir Vertlib. These texts, despite their different contexts, often show great similarity in the motifs they deal with, such as: language and language learning, identity and the search for identity (expressed for instance by cooking, eating and food ), or depictions of the new homeland. In this paper, I scrutinise these motifs in a comparative manner.

Migration literature in Austria and Great Britain – a comparative thematic approach

Vlasta S
2016-01-01

Abstract

In this article, I define migration literature as literature on the topic of migration and I argue that it is a sub-genre that exists in both various bodies of literature as well as various languages. In order to proof my point, I illustrate it with examples from contemporary texts on experiences of migration in German and English and focus on recurrent themes and motifs in them. In particular, I look at texts by writers living and working in Great Britain and Austria, i.e. by Monica Ali, Anna Kim, Timothy Mo, Caryl Phillips, Hamid Sadr, and Vladimir Vertlib. These texts, despite their different contexts, often show great similarity in the motifs they deal with, such as: language and language learning, identity and the search for identity (expressed for instance by cooking, eating and food ), or depictions of the new homeland. In this paper, I scrutinise these motifs in a comparative manner.
2016
Le présent article se propose de définir la littérature de migration comme une littérature concernant le thème de la migration et vise à montrer qu’elle est un sous-genre qui existe à la fois dans les diverses littératures et langues. Afin de prouver mon hypothèse, mon étude tire plusieurs exemples des ouvrages contemporains sur les expériences de la migration en allemand et anglais, et se concentre sur les thèmes et les motifs récurrents qui y sont attestés. En particulier, il est question de textes rédigés par des auteurs qui habitent et travaillent en Grande-Bretagne et en Autriche, par exemple Monica Ali, Anna Kim, Timothy Mo, Caryl Phillips, Hamid Sadr, et Vladimir Vertlib. Malgré leurs contextes différents, ces ouvrages montrent souvent une série importante d’analogies dans les questions abordées, telles la langue et l’apprentissage de la langue, l’identité et la recherche de l’identité (exprimée, par exemple, par la cuisine, l’alimentation, la nourriture), ou les représentations d’une nouvelle patrie. Toutes ces questions sont examinées avec une approche comparative.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/1102399
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