Narrated Belonging

This volume explores the complexities and variations of the nation and examines its transformative potential within the broad field of literary studies through various literary works, including fiction, autobiography, poetry, and theater. The authors address phenomena such as global capitalist exploitation, and its conjunction with other forms of violence, including colonialism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and white supremacy. They engage with literary texts and film that reflect on, and disseminate, both hegemonic and, importantly, counterhegemonic discourses across the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Each chapter engages with productions that speak from minoritarian and/or racially oppressed perspectives, including works representing Black American transnationalism, perspectives of refugees of color, immigrant and Palestinian voices, Romani positionalities, and Caribbean diasporic perspectives. Focusing on these cultural texts, our authors examine the effects of, as well as resistance to, a variety of vectors of oppression. These include U.S.-American anti-Black racism and anti-migrantism, in connection with the exploitation of the working class; European anti-Roma violence; 20th-century Zionism; the violence of European border regimes; and forced migration and the segregation of refugees into camps.