WEBINAR ‘THANATIC ETHICS: THE CIRCULATION OF BODIES IN MIGRATORY SPACES’

Srilata Ravi (University of Alberta)

In response to public discourse on refugees, asylum seekers and the undocumented migrants which oscillates between two opposing positions, “humanitarian compassion” and “securitarian anxiety” (Sanyal 2019)1, how do Canadian literary representations of migrant experiences imagine detained and refuge seeking bodies?  How far do these texts go to challenge neo-liberal celebrations of refugee resilience? Do these texts interrogate the very foundations of the legal and political categories used to label  them? Or, is the body of the “literary” refugee merely an aesthetic signifier to render visible the invisible to a curious readership as a way of ethical compensation? Works by Canadian writers, Lawrence Hill, Sharon Bala and Kim Thúy  will be examined to consider these questions.

To attend one of the online events, or to be added to the seminar's mailing list, please contact Thomas Lacroix thomas.lacroix@cnrs.fr 

The Thanatic ethics: the circulation of bodies in migratory spaces Webinar is convened by Bidisha Banerjee (CPCH, The Education University of Hong Kong), Judith Misrahi-Barak (EMMA, Montpellier 3), Thomas Lacroix (MFO)