Refugee fiction as world-literature: Rethinking registration in the contemporary refugee novel

Abstract

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees #IBelong campaign reinforces the importance of national belonging in crisis resolution. However, both the “refugee crisis” and world-literature complicate this classification of belonging. Whilst research into refugee fiction is abundant, readings of refugee fiction as world-literature are sparse. This paper re-examines the impact of the “refugee crisis” on classifications of belonging, arguing that a reading of refugee fiction through the Warwick Research Collective’s definition of world-literature enables an understanding of the systems and forces underlying the crisis. Synthesizing the work of the Warwick Research Collective, Hannah Arendt, and Judith Butler, it explores contemporary social (rather than national) belonging in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, enabling a critique of the United Nations-led assignment of rights in the contemporary world. Through reading registration in refugee fiction, we can re-examine literature’s role in crisis, critiquing contemporary responses to the “refugee crisis”, and contributing alternative approaches based on collective belonging.