changing borders in published migration narratives in norwegian

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Working Paper 12 Changing Borders in Published Migration Narratives in Norwegian Johan Schimanski (UiT The Arctic University of Norway/University of Oslo) May 2016 EUBORDERSCAPES (290775) is Funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7-SSH-2011-1), Area 4.2.1 The evolving concept of borders EU BORDER Bordering, Political Landscapes and Social Arenas: Potentials and Challenges of Evolving Border Concepts in a post-Cold War World SCAPES

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Page 1: Changing Borders in Published Migration Narratives in Norwegian

WorkingPaper12

ChangingBordersinPublishedMigrationNarrativesinNorwegian

JohanSchimanski(UiTTheArcticUniversityofNorway/UniversityofOslo)

May2016

EUBORDERSCAPES (290775) is Funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7-SSH-2011-1), Area 4.2.1 The evolving concept of borders

EU BORDER Bordering, Political Landscapes and Social Arenas:Potentials and Challenges of Evolving Border

Concepts in a post-Cold War WorldSCAPES

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ChangingBordersinPublishedMigrationNarrativesinNorwegian

JohanSchimanski

ABSTRACT

ThisworkingpapergivessomeoftheinterpretationsandworkinghypothesesreachedatthisstageofmycontributiontoresearchwithintheEUBORDERSCAPESprojectWorkingPackage10,ResearchTask 3: ”Cultural Borders of Europe ‘Bordering’ and ‘Re-bordering’ Europe through FictionalNarratives: TheCaseof Immigrant ‘Others’”. Thepaperexaminesmigration literaturewrittenandpublished in Norwegian by the children of migrants or migrants born elsewhere but growing uppartlyinNorway,forrhetoricalandnarrativefigurationsofbordersandborder-crossingswhichcanprovide keys to changing conceptions of borders and to the values these are ascribed. Thepaperarguesforthecloseconnectionbetweenborderconceptsinthecorpusandthestatusofthebooksas performative acts crossing from private experience to public discourse. This process is oftenexplicitlyaddressedinthetextsthemselvesandispartofanextendedborderscape.Iintendlatertoaddressfurthertexts,thenegotiationofborderconceptsinthereceptionoftexts,thesocialcontextand research literature onmigration inNorway, and research literature onmigration literature ingeneral.

Keywords:migrationliterature,borderfigures,borderconcepts,borderscapes,publicsphere

Theglasswall

Earlyon inAmalAden’sbookMindrømom frihet: En selvbiografisk fortelling (2009, ”My

DreamofFreedom:AnAutobiographicalNarrative”),themaincharacterandnarratorseesa

glasswallinagovernmentofficeinOslo.ShehasjustarrivedinNorwayandhasbeentaken

by two other Somalis to register at the child welfare services, the concept of which is

incomprehensibletoher.”Wewalk inthroughadoor,andIseeawomansittingbehinda

glasswall,justliketheysatattheairport.”1Thisisthefirsttimeshemeetsandtalkswith–

oristalkedtoby–whiteNorwegians:”Wegointoasmallroomwiththewhiteladies.We

sitdownaroundatable,andnowtheyallspeakNorwegian.Idonotunderstandanything.

TheonlywordIrecognizeismyname”(38).

1MyowntranslationsfromtheNorwegiantexts,unlessotherwiseindicated.IhavenotincludedtheoriginalNorwegiantextsinthisworkingpaper.

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What wemay recognize is the image of the glass wall or divider, manifesting a form of

border.Infeministdiscourse,ametaphoricalglassceilingallowswomenpursuingcareersto

imaginereachingfurtherinthehierarchy,butbarsthemfromactuallymovingupwards.In

thestory”Lafronteradecristal”(”TheCrystalFrontier”)byCarlosFuentes,partofthenovel

of the same name (Fuentes 1996, 187-213, trans. Fuentes 1999, 166-189), a male guest

worker from Mexico and a female office worker in New York have an encounter and

attempt to communicatewith each other, but any truemeeting is prevented by a highly

symbolic glass wall: she is standing inside the building, while he is washing its windows,

neitherabletoheartheother.InAden,infeministdiscourseandinFuentes,theglassdivide

formsaborderwitha specificepistemologicaldimension– theborder is transparentand

almost invisible–which simultaneously stands forapower relationshipand fora formof

exclusion. InAdenandFuentesat least, theglasswallalsosignifiesa lackof signification:

people communicate across the divide, but do not understand each other. Aden’s book

containswithinitanindictmentoftheNorwegianchildprotectionservicesasill-preparedto

dealwithyoungrefugeesfromotherculturesandlinguisticspheres.

InbothMindrømomfrihetandLafronteradecrystal,theglasswallactuallyexistsineither

anon-fictionalorfictionalworld,andisnotametaphor.Inbothcaseshowever,aswehave

seen,theglasswallisgivenasymbolicdimension,indicatingaformofpartialaccesswithout

trueparticipation.Thissymbolicdimensionisfurthermorestrengthenedbyametonymical

connectiontothenationalborder.Theimageoftheglasswall inAdenandinFuentesisa

version of the national border, topographically displaced in away typical of borders and

border figures, indicative of the way in which national borders form and are formed by

extended borderscapes (cf. Brambilla 2015, Rajaram and Grundy-Warr 2007, Schimanski

2015).InAden’stext,theimageoftheglasswallwouldhavehadlessweightinthisreading

ifithadnotbeenfortheaddedclauseintheabovequote,”justliketheysatattheairport”

(38). This is a reference toadescription,only a fewpagespreviously, ofAmal’s entrance

intoNorwayviaanairport:”Westandinaqueue,andHassantalksintheweird[merkelige]

languagewith a lady sitting behind a hatch” (35). The border toNorway, itself displaced

topographically from the outer edges of the nation to an international airport near the

capitalcity,isrepeatedonasymboliclevelasadifferenceofculturewhichAmalwillmeet

continually throughout her life in Norway. This symbolic border is given topographical

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materiality throughan architectural detail, itself a topographical borderon amicro scale,

whichthusallowedtofunctionasaborderfigure.

Sea,war,back,tunnel

A ”border figure” (Schimanski 2006, 58-60) is an imagewhich stands for the border and

which gives it a specific form, different from other border figures, bringing with it

sometimesthesamebutalsootherconnotations,alsodependentonthecontext inwhich

theborder figure is read (”figure”here refers to rhetorical figures, rather than topeople,

through of course a person can also be a border figure in the sense used here). Border

figurescanbestrikingimagessuchastheglasswalloraswewillsee,anopensea,awar,a

turnedbackoradark tunnel.Theycanhoweveralsobemorecomplicatedconfigurations

(or ”con-figurations”) of time and space as produced in narratives of border-crossing or

borderlandlife.

In Min drøm om frihet, ”My life in freedom”, ”freedom” (frihet) must be understood

ironicallytoalargeextent,asAmalissuccessivelysubjectedtolifeasachildsoldieroutside

Mogadishu,aspolicedbySomalicommunitiesinOslo.Thefreedomsheattainsattheendof

the narrative is contingent on being brought into a police protection scheme in order to

protectherfromthosecommunities.However,almostexactlyatthemiddleofthenovel(on

page92oftheinall178pagesofthemainnarrative),thereisanarrativeturnorreversal.

Frombeingcaughtinadownwardspiralintoviolentbehaviouranddrugabuse,Amalgoes

to beginning upward integration into Norwegian society. This halfway point, marked by

Amal’s meeting the woman who is to become her first Norwegian friend, constitutes a

narrativeborder in thebook’s text,dividing the firsthalf fromthesecond,andcoinciding

withthebreakbetweentwochapters.Inabookwhichisotherwisenotableforitsstarkand

directprose,itisnotablethatthisculturalbordercrossingisdirectlyprecededbyapassage

in which the text itself crosses over into the language of metaphor (following Franco

Moretti’sthesisthat”figuralitygoesup”attheborder,Moretti1998,45):

IfeelasifIamswimminginthemiddleofthesea,butdonotknowwhichdirectionit

isrighttoswimsoastoreachland.Iamconfusedanddesperate.Isleepalotduring

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theday andoftenendup in fights at night. I am scared, here is also awar. I feel

unsafewhereverIam.Ifeelthatthepastishuntingme.Ifeelalone.Ifeelthatthe

world has turned its back tome. I am lost for ever because I cannot stop getting

high.Gettinghigh isamonsterwhich lives insideme, I cannot livewithoutgetting

high.Iambecomingmoreandmoreviolent,thereisnobodytheretohelpme,Iam

alonewithmyproblems.Thelong,darktunnelwhichismylifeisstilldark,thereis

nolightandnofuture.(Aden2009,92)

Thepassage fromalienation to integration is a cultural border-crossingwhich follows the

topographicalpassage fromSomalia toNorway.Theborder is crossedagainandagain,at

various points in time and in the text. The quoted paragraph contains a string of border

figuresthatattributedifferentvaluestothecentralborder-crossingofthenovel,justasthe

glasswalldoes.Swimmingwithnosenseofdirectioninopen”sea”,butwithhopeofland,

points to the disorienting effect of border-crossing, in which the border becomes an

uncanny,unsafezonewithnosuretyofsuccessinitscrossing.Theperceivedconflictlinesof

”war”inOsloindicatethewayinwhichtheinternalstrifeinSomaliacrossestheborderto

NorwaywithAmal.Alienationcausedbyborder-crossingandfailedpromisesofintegration

isa”back”turned;abarrierisformedandthesubjectismadeinvisibleastheother’sgaze

turnsaway,dis-recognizingtheself.Theextendedborder-crossingbecomesa”darktunnel”

ofcontinual,constrictingnegativity.Throughthesefigures,thebookpresentsmigrationfor

thechildsoldierrefugeeasanover-extendedborderzone.

Thenarrativeborderconfigurationof theplot’s turningpromisesanpartialending to this

zone, ”freedom” taken in a non-ironic sense. The Norwegian neighbour she meets in a

supermarket who is to become her friend has been given the alias ”Liv”, a Norwegian

woman’snamebutalsothenounliv,meaning”life”,whichthusrepeats1)thelastsentence

of paragraph quoted above, and 2) the very last word of the following short paragraph

whichendsthechapterbeforetheturntakesplace:”Iwantabetterlife”(29).

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Publishedimmigranttales

In this study, I examine published texts by immigrants (or the children of immigrants)

relatingtodiasporacommunitiesinNorway,askinghowtheirimagesandstoriesofborders

andbordercrossingscontributetoshiftsinourconceptsofborders.

Why look at published narratives? In literary studies, this question is not often asked.

Literary texts are mostly assumed to have been published. In social studies however,

narrativesareoftenseenaswhatourlivesandidentitiesaremadeof,togetherconstituting

alargesetofnarrativesofwhichtheoverwhelmingmajorityarenotpublished.Indeed,the

social scientist may even hold a prejudice against published narratives, seeing them as

removed from the real thing, subject to the vagaries of markets, publishers and state

subsidies. Even worse, many published narratives are in fact fictions and fantasies, and

scarcelyreliableasobjectivesources.

In the following I suggest however that published narratives provide essential keys to

understandingthepublicsocial imaginarywhich isan importantelement inapoliticaland

democratic society. Theyare in themselvesperformativeactsofborder crossingbetween

the private and the public, making the private visible. Seen in this way, the difference

betweendocumentationandfictionisoflessimportance,thoughitalsooftenhasaneffect

onhowpublishednarrativesbecomepartofthesocialimaginary.Withinthepublicsphere,

literatureoverlapswithotherpublicdiscourses,evenwhen itdescribesprivate, individual

experiences.

Norway has a developed culture of public debate in which literature often has played a

majorrole,followingtheinternationallyfamiliarmodelofIbsen’splays,forexample.While

theautonomyofliteraturehasbeenmuchdebatedinNorwegianliterarystudies,asithas

elsewhere, it is clear that Norwegian literature caters for the desire of readers to follow

publicdebates.LookingspecificallyatimmigrationliteratureinNorwegian,Iproposeinthe

formofhypothesisthatthesecaternotonlyadesirefor1)aestheticexperience,butalsofor

2)ethnographic informationabout immigrants’ lives,3)politicalknowledgeaboutongoing

publicdebates,andinsomecases4)therapeuticidentificationonthepartsofreaderswho

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stemfromdiasporicculturesorfeelmarginalizedinotherways.Thelackofanaestheticized,

postmodernisttraditionofdiasporaliteraturesimilartothatwhichistobefoundinEnglish,

French, Swedish, German, etc. may indicate that these desires in the Norwegian public

spherehavearelativelyequalweight.

Theembeddingofpublicdebateinliteratureworksbothways:ontheonehand,literatureis

givenaroleinpublicdebate;ontheother,literaturebecomesmoredifficulttodifferentiate

fromotherkindsofpublishednarrative.Methodologically,thismeansthatanyapproachto

diasporic literature, a form of literaturewhich addresses highlymediatized public issues,

musttakeintoaccountawidespectrumofgenres,rangingfromthepurelydocumentaryto

theheavilyliterary,fictionalandfigural.Thisspectrumisborneoutbytheextensiverange

of published immigration narratives available in Norwegian, including novels,

autobiographies, fictionalized

autobiographies (sometimes

written pseudonymously),

anonymized interview-based

biographies written in the 3rd

person (Eskild 2010), along with

anthologiesof letters fromchildren

(Kumar 1997), interview-based narratives (Aden 2011), short stories, and narratives

resulting from oral narratives projects (Johansen and Vedeld 2008) and autobiography

projects (Danielsen 2005). Some of these narratives are produced by diaspora “authors”,

othersbydiaspora “public intellectuals”, stillmorebyNorwegian“researchers” (my scare

quotesindicatethestatusofsuchlabelsasdiscursivelyproducedsubjectpositions).

Typically, in public and also academic discourse, diasporas are divided up into

generations:“1stgeneration”and“2ndgeneration”(borninNorway)immigrants.Recently,

mentionhasbeenmadeof“generation1½”immigrants,withreferencetochildrenbornin

othercountries,butbroughtupinNorway,butalsoinaformofironicdiscourseanalysisof

the“generation”rhetoricwhichemphasizesafeelingofhybridityand“halfness’.Ingivingan

overviewofdiaspora literature inNorwegian, it isdifficulttoavoidasimilar ’generational’

logic.OnecanforexamplespeakofKhalidHussain’spioneeringnovelPakkis(1986,”Paki”),

a novel of urban youth caught between Oslo street and Pakistani family cultures, as

PHASE0 generation1noauthors

noaccesstoNorwegianliteraryculture

PHASE1KhalidHussainPakkis(“Paki”)1986

"father"ofmodernimmigrantnovelinNorwegian

PHASE2generation1½,generation2authors

accesstoNorwegianliteraryCulture

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constituting in itself the “phase 1” of diaspora literature in Norwegian. This would be

precededbya“phase0”:theoriginalimmigrantswholackaccesstotheNorwegianliterary

and public spheres and thus lack a public voice. It would be followed by a “phase 2” of

books by writers who have grown up in Norway, in some cases being brought there as

children,inothersbeingbornthere.

I attempt here to differentiate between immigrant narratives, diasporic narratives and

“immigration narratives”. The Norwegian term innvandrerlitteratur, seems often, like the

term“immigrant”,usedtocoverliteraturealsowrittenbypeopleborninNorway;thusthe

term “diasporic”may seemsmoreappropriate.However,my concernhere ismore todo

with narratives of “immigration”, whoever theymay be written by: i.e. narratives which

includestoriesoforiginalandsecondarybordercrossings.Thesearenotusuallywrittenby

adult immigrants to Norway, who have not been in a position to publish such writings.

Hussain’sbookalsodoesnotdirectlyconcerntheborder-crossingintoNorwaypresumably

made at one point by the protagonist’s family. Phase 2 authors and writers continually

figure border crossings both to and fromNorway, usually by airplane, in their narratives.

ThesebordercrossingsaremadebackandforthbetweenNorwayandcountriesofbirth(or

theirparents’births),orbetweenNorwayandothercountries(suchasEngland)connected

byglobaldiasporas.Veryoftenhowever,thesenarrativesalsotellthestoriesoftheoriginal

immigration toNorwaybyapreviousgeneration.As such, thesenarrativesprovidea rich

material for an investigation into literary and para-literary contributions to shifts in the

borderconcept.

Borderlinksandumbilicalborderobjects

Aden’sMin drøm om frihet, introduced above, and Roda Ahmed’s novel Forberedelsen

(2008, ”The Preparation”) are both published book-length narratives by authorswho are

partof theSomali diaspora inNorway. Through theiruseof genremay shed lighton the

different forms of publication involved, one being an pseudonymous fictionalized

autobiography (”Amal Aden” is a pseudonym), the other a novel – though both address

controversial questions of identity andmore concretely violence against women through

ritualgenitalmutilation.Somali immigrationnarrativesappearinallthegenresmentioned

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earlier.AsinmanyotherEuropeancountries(thoughnot,forexampleintheUSA),Somali

immigrants, often refugees, have in Norway been seen as especially “problematic” and

“difficult” to integrate; Somalis have also grown to become one of the largest diasporic

communities in Norway. Public debates about migration have sometimes focused

specificallyonSomali immigration,andthismaygotoexplainingtowiderangeofgeneric

differentiationtobeseeninpublishednarrativesabouttheSomalidiasporainNorway.

Thetwotextsarebothbywomenandtellcoming-of-agestories,i.e.narrativesaboutyoung

peoplecrossingtemporalbordersbetweenchildhoodandadulthood.Bothareemphatically

narratives of liberation; their main plotlines are structured by extended epistemological

border crossings as their protagonists discover they are caught in both Somali and

Norwegian discourses. Captivity is a major motif, with both books ending in escape as

Ahmed’sprotagonisttakestheEurostartrainfromLondontoParisandAden’sprotagonist

entersthesecurityofNorwegianpoliceprotection.

The two texts however can be contrasted both in terms of plot and style. Ahmed’s

protagonist Zara is born in Norway and grows up in a privileged background with

professionalparents.ShefeelsfullyintegratedintoOslosocietyasachild,anditisonlyon

enteringpubertythatshediscoversachangeofrules.Theremaybeareferenceheretothe

“LoveLaws”ofArundhatiRoy’sbestsellingpostcolonialnovelTheGodofSmallThings(Roy

1997). Crossing North-North national borders from Oslo to the London Somali diasporic

community, Zara finds herself alienated and experiences a form of splitting and a

positioningina“thirdspace”.Aden’sunnamed(thoughautobiographical)protagonistgrows

upasawarorphanandchild soldier inandoutsideMogadishu, crossing theSouth-North

borderasayoungadult.Shefindsherselfinalifeofcrimeanddrugsontheoutskirtsofthe

Norwegian state and the Somali community in Oslo, and her narrative becomes one of

redemptionasshemakesajourneybothintowritingandintoprotection.

Both books are written in the first person. Ahmed’s book is strongly aestheticized,

combining the exingencies of the adolescent romance plotwith the postcolonial,magical

realiststyle familiartoreadersofmuchdiasporic literature inEnglish.Assuch,theauthor

utilizesthefragmentationofnarrativetime,playingwithmetaphors,fablesandotherforms

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ofsymbolism,andbuildinganarrativeframearoundacollectionofphotosfromHargeisa,

whichtheprotagonistfindsinhergrandmother’shouseinLondon.Incontrast,Aden’sbook

is written so as to be as straight-forward and accessible as possible, and as spare as

everyday language in its use of metaphors. In most of her published work, Aden clearly

writesprimarilyinordertocommunicate.Asitssubtitle”[e]nselvbiografiskfortelling”(”an

autobiographical narrative”) indicates, the book is not a novel, and tends towards the

documentaryand testimonial.Hermain fictional turn lies inher anonymizationofherself

andother characters throughaliases and changes toevents andplaces. Thepossibilityof

anonymityinpublicwritingbecomesherprotagonist’shelperinprotectingherselfandher

friendsfrompossibleviolence.

Aden’sstarkproseandoftennightmarishplotgivesherbookaperhapsunintentedliterary

force. It alsomakes it possible to directly delineate the use ofmetaphor in the book, of

special interest when it comes to identifying its conceptions of the border. As described

already,thecrossingfromtheprosaic intothemetaphoric ismade,significantlyattextual

borders and in conjunction with borders crossings in the plot. Metaphors appear in her

foreword (7-9), where she describes the act of writing. They appear, as quoted earlier,

directlybeforethebook’sturningpoint,themomentwhensheforthefirsttimemeetsthe

Norwegian woman Liv, signalizing an important step in her integration into Norwegian

society.Thetunnelmetaphorfromthisquoteappearsalreadyintheforeword,thoughwith

the addition there that her border crossing fromSomalia toNorwayopens into light and

freedom (7), summing up symbolic border-crossings from trauma to integration, from

violencetosecurity,fromvoicelessnesstowriting,fromcaptivitytoliberty.

Asthereadercrossesoverintothemainnarrativeofthenovel,sheorheispresentedwith

a striking image of Amal’s aunts’ house inMogadishu, roofless (the corrugated iron roof

havingbeenstolentwoweeksearlier).Theparagraphislinkedformallytothatinthemiddle

ofthebookthroughtheircommonuseofaday-nightschemeinoneoftheirphrases.The

phrasefromthemiddleofthebook,”Isleepalotduringthedayandoftenendupinfights

atnight”(92),standshoweverinnegativecontrasttolifewiththeaunts:

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Duringthedaythesunfries,nowit iseveningandcool.ThewomenandIsitclose

togetheronthefloorwithablanketaroundus. It is fullmoon,andthesky isclear

andfullofstars.Thewomentellmestoriesaboutthestarsweseeinskyabovethe

house. I listen closely, it is exciting to hear thewomen tell. The storiesmakeme

forgetadailylifefullofwar.(11)

Foramoment(beforethehorrorofthenextpagewhenherauntsarekilledbymarauding

soldiers),wearepresentedwithanidyllicborderfigurereminiscentofpsychoanalystBracha

Lichtenberg-Ettinger’sconceptofthe”matrixialborderlines”(1994).Theaunts’house,with

its openness to the sky and the close bodily contact between its inhabitants, provides a

formalmemoryofapre-natalspaceof”borderlinks”ratherthanthepatriarchalbordercut

oftheOedipalphase(Lichtenberg-Ettinger1994,40-49).Underlyingtheaunts’storiesofthe

stars is the direct communication of the stars through the roof, again reminiscent of a

unordered and subtle ”semiotic” and not a structured ”symbolic” language, to cite the

termsusedby JuliaKristevaabout the relationshipof literature to suchapre-natal space

(1990). Inthisspace,narrative isnotanegotiationwiththeNorwegianpublicsphereora

reminderofviolence,butachildhoodmemoryofSomalioral literature.Aden’sbookfinds

itswaybacktoanoriginarysceneofstory-tellingwhichprovidesborderfigureswhichstand

incontrast to the lawofviolentborder-crossingwhich is themainmotifofherbook.The

spatial configuration constituted by a house without a roof in itself signifies a specific

conceptionoftheborder,atoposinwhichtheborderisreplaceablebyanopenspace,and

thelackofprotectionwhichistheresultofaborderbeinglostcantemporarilyopenuptoa

sublimeandrelationalspace.

Aden’s protagonist continually meets specific configurations of space which define her

sense of borders.More often than not, such aswhen she first visits the child protection

agency,herspaceisthreatenedbypenetrationandoccupationbyothers.Thecultureshock

and accompanying potential for misunderstanding is expressed in the scene where she

throwsatelevision–anobjectwhichshedoesnotunderstand–outofthewindowofthe

room the agency has provided her with in Oslo (41). Increasingly through the book she

experiences social exclusion from the Somali diaspora community and inclusion fromher

Norwegianfriends.Mostimportantlyhowever,thebookfiguresherlifeinOsloasaliminal

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periodwhichonly reproduces the threateningviolenceofher lifeasachild solderon the

outskirtsofMogadishu.OslobecomesaplaceamixingbetweenNorwayandSomalia,asa

lifeofdrugsandcrimecreatesfortheprotagonistawar-likesituationinapeacefulcountry.

Continually, narrative agents who appear to be her helpers transform into antagonists,

symbolic border guards: this applies to members of her family, her friend Mustafa in

SomaliaandherhusbandYassininNorway,aswellastothechildprotectionagency.

The physical border-crossings between Somali and Norwegian territories take place in

aeroplanes.TheoriginarymigrationtoNorwaytakesplaceundertheinfluenceofsedatives

providedbyherSomaliguide,andthesenseofborderdisorientationsheexperienceshere

spreads through thebook,only tobe counteredas shegradually gains in confidenceand

competenceaftertheplot’sturningpoint.

Turning to Ahmed’s novel Forberedelsen, the image of the roof open to the stars which

connectsAden’sprotagonisttoanoriginalsecurity isreplacedbyamorematerial formof

“umbilical object”, a border concept described by Debra Castillo in the context of

immigration to theUnitedStates (2007). ”Umbilicalobjects” areobjectsbrought toone’s

newcountry inordertoremindoneselfofhome; intheirnewcontextstheyparadoxically

function both as connecting lines tying the migrant to the motherland and as border

markers(Castillo2007,124-125).TheumbilicalobjectinAhmed’snovelisanenvelopefull

of photographs from a prosperous past in Hargeisa, dating back to 1920, which her

protagonistZarafindsinhergrandmother’shouseinLondon.2Theseformtheentranceinto

themainnarrativeofthebook,whichthengoesback intimeandrecountsthestoryhow

shecomestobealoneinhergrandmother’shouseanddecidestoescapeontheEurostar

traintoParis,whichishowthebookends.Thephotographs,mentionedatbothouteredges

of the main narrative (Ahmed 2008, 9, 165), frame the story in an ambivalent fashion,

bringing together a longing for lost origins with an escape from a diasporic community

which is caught in traditions Zara cannot live with. They create a figure of border

2Thiskindofphotographicborderscapeisatypicaltoposinmigrationliterature,andcanbecomparedtothesonicandculinaryborderscapeswhichstructureothermigrationnovelsandwhicharedevelopedoninJopiNyman’sandStephenWolfe’scontributionstoEUBORDERSCAPESWorkingPackage10ResearchTask3.

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contradictioninthediasporicexperienceforayoungwomenconceivedinAfricabutbornin

Europe(18).

Before themain narrative, Ahmed however gives a short fable as an introduction to the

book(7-8),pointingbothtothetraditionsofSomalioralliteratureandtothemagicalrealist

tradition in postcolonial literature. The fable recounts the story of an exiled slavewho is

enchantedintoamermaid,butwhoendsupestablishinganewcountry,whichwillonlybe

forexiles.Italsofiguresasailor,whoismetaphoricallydescribedasajellyfishonland.AsI

havealreadyindicated,Ahmed’snovel isrich inmetaphor,andinparticular imagesofthe

borderbetweenlandandsea,ofmonstroustransformations inkeepingwithhernarrative

ofcomingtoage.Intermsofborderconcepts,herfiguresproducespatialimagesofcultural

hybridity and of being caught on the border between cultures. These images progress

however, in a move similar to that in Ingeborg Bachmann’s poem on cold war Central

European spaces “Böhmen liegt am Meer” (1978, “Bohemia Lies by the Sea”), to the

creationofanimaginarynationofexilesinautopianmaritimespace.

Honour

NasimKarim’sautobiographicalnovelIZZAT-Forærensskyld(1996,”IZZAT–Forthesakeof

honour”) and Romeo Gill’s first two parts of a projected trilogy, Harjeet: Roman (2008,

”Harjeet:Novel”)andUngmanninyttland:Roman(2011,”YoungManinNewLand”)both

involvebordercrossingsbetweentheSub-Continent(PakistanandIndia)andNorway.They

alsoexhibitcertainsimilaritiesintheme,mostclearlyaninter-generationalconflictinvolving

proudfatherswithastrongsenseofhonourorizzatperceivedasbeingpartofPakistaniand

Northern Indian culture. This theme is lacking in the two Somali diaspora narratives

discussedabove,but in commonwith these is anemancipationplot involvingescapes. In

Karim’snovel,theprotagonistNoreenmakesadramaticescapeafteranarrangedmarriage

which takes place during a visit to Pakistan, receiving police protection on her return to

Norway.InGill’snovels,thesonAkas(orsohisbrotherspeculates)becomesthefirstIndian

in Norway to move out from his family against their will, again under the threat of an

arrangedmarriage,movinginwithhisNorwegiangirlfriend.Theborder-crossingsinKarim’s

andGill’snovelsare temporal transitionswithincoming-of-agenarratives,epistemological

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crossings as the protagonists discover their own fathers and explore the reasons behind

theirmotivations, and topographical crossings centred around plane flights. Both involve

travelstocountriesoforiginwhichtakeonthestatusofnon-ritualliminalspaces.

However, where IZZAT focuses on the trauma of abuse, anorexia, suicide attempts and

emprisonment, Harjeet and Ung mann i nytt land (as the latter makes clear) are more

concerned with coming-to-literature; we imagine that the third, projected book of the

trilogymighttaketheformofaKünstlerroman.Otherintersectionalaspectsareinvolvedin

these differences, mainly to do with gender and religion (Noreen is the daughter in a

Muslimfamily,AkasisthesoninaSikhfamily).

Inordertoclarifytherolesofthesetwonarrativesinrelationtothepublicsphere,itis–as

inthecaseofAden’sandAhmed’sbooks–necessarytotakeintoaccountquestionsofstyle.

Theauthors’narratologicaldecisionsaffectthewayinwhichthesebooksfunctionaspublic

representations;inJacquesRancière’sterms,thewayinwhichpoliticsandaestheticsmeet

inthe“distributionofthesensible”(2004).BothKarimandGillavoidovertmetaphorsand

magicalrealism,preferringamoretraditionalrealismwithstrongethnographiccomponents

givingcross-culturalexplanations.Karim’sshortnovelisargumentative,endingwithashort

polemical afterword, while Gill’s more epic style reaching back the experience of Akas’

father emigrating from India to Norway as a guest worker in the 1970s has a strong

historiographical element. Karim choses a conventional first person, retrospective style

correspondingtoanactofautobiographicalwitnessing,whileGill’s lengthydescriptions in

thethirdpersonprovideforliterarydefamiliarization.Gillconstantlydelegatesfocalization

to others than the protagonist, allowing the reader to cross the generation and gender

divides involved inhisnovels.Whilewriting in the thirdperson,alsoaboutAkas, the first

sentenceofHarjeetmakesclear that thenarrator isactuallyAkashimself: “Hewrites the

storyashebelievesitmusthavebeen:[…]”(9).Gillthusasksustoreadthenovelsasanact

of narrative identification and imagination across generations on the part of Akas,

underliningtheepistemologicalborder-crossingbetweentimes,generationsandcultures.

The aesthetic dimension partly defines the way in which these texts construct border

conceptswiththehelpofborderfiguresandborderconfigurations.Theprosaicstyleused

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by both Karim and Gill avoid metaphors for the most part, but Karim uses some both

powerfulandconventionalmetaphors inordertodescribestatesofculturalhybridityand

incommensurability, describing the children of Asian parents in Norway as “Europe’s

niggers”and“Asia’swhitepopulation”(5)andasfeeling“halfNorwegianandhalfPakistani”

or as “split” between countries, languages and cultures (25), and talking of a “collision”

betweenthenorms(105)ofadaughterandafatherwhoare“lightyearsapart”(115).The

resultoftheseviolentdividesisthatherprotagonistNoreenbecomesaformofzombie,a

hybrid, uncanny, both dead and alive figure of the border. At her arranged wedding in

Pakistan, she is a “corpse who is brought in by her father” (118) and when signing the

marriagepapers,shefeelsthatshehas“signedherdeathcertificate”;andafterherescape

toNorwaywiththehelpoftheNorwegianambassadortoPakistan,hermotherisforcedto

treatheras“declareddead”(137).

Themost strikingmetaphors or symbols of borders in Gill’s books aremore ambivalent.

Akasisrepeatedlyattractedawayfromthehorizontalactofcrossingthebordertoavertical

axis,eitherupintotheairordownintowater.AsachildinHarjeet,hisbrotherallowshim

toflyakite,presagingthe journeybyairtoNorway:“AndwhileAkassteeredthekite,he

day-dreamed.He flewhigh up among the birds and clouds and thought that itwould be

wonderfultobeabletoflytoschool, […]”(18).Afterhis fatherhasmovedtoNorway,he

attempts to imaginethetallhouses thereandknowsthathe“hadactuallyneverbeenso

highupintotheairatanypoint”(160).InPunjab,hehasneverseenthesea,andimagines

the danger of drowning (163), and then, again crossing an epistemological border to

Norway,“wonderswhether itwaspossible toswim in thesea inNorway, for if itwas,he

would learn to swim” (164). The day his father comes home to visit from Norway, he

imagines falling into awell and dying (192). This first book of the trilogy endswith Akas

flyingtogetherwithhisbrotherandmothertojoinhisfatherinNorway.Thesecondbook,

Ungmann i nytt land, beginswith the family travelling from the airport to their father’s

home inDrammen.Growingupthere,Akas learnstoswim(74),andaftermovingout,he

imagineshisfuture,beginningonthelastpageofthesecondbook,asarepeatedstrugglein

whichhesees“himselfbeingthrownagainsttherockspointingupoutofthesea,againand

againhesawhisbodybeingthrownagainsttherocks.Thiswillbeastruggleagainstthetide

andthewaves,hethought,butthisstrugglewillbemystruggle”(313).Onthisouteredge

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ofthebook,heseeshimselfas“ayoungmaninnewcountry”,quotingthetitleofthebook

andalsotheNorwegiantitle(Ungmannsland,“Youngman’scountry”)ofthedebutnovel

When the Lion Feeds (1964) by bestseller author Wilbur Smith. He then opens the first

Norwegiannovelwhichhewillread,KnutHamsun’sAugust(1930),thestoryofamanwho

returnshomewithgreatambitionsafteralongstayoutsideofNorway.

Harjeet,Akas’ father, is often absent; he carries theborderwithinhim.Before leaving to

work ina factory inNorway,hehadworkedasabordersoldier inKashmir.His formative

memoryandtraumawastheviolentexileonDivision,ashewas5yearsoldandhadtoflee

withhis family fromwhathadbecomePakistan (64-67).Hebecomesa figurewhomAkas

cannot trust, but Aka’s day-dreams and imagination before becoming (we imagine) an

authorarepredicatedontheabsences,freemovementabovebordersandimaginedplaces

hisfatherrepresents.

BothKarim’sandGill’snarrativesdescribeextendedtopographicalborder-crossingsandthe

borderscapesthatthesearticulate.WhereasKarim’sbookfiguresthetopographical,cultural

andgenerationalborderasasplit,Gill’sbooksfocusmoreofagradualprogressiontowards

independenceinwhichdifferences,commonalitiesanddefamiliarizinggazesinthepassage

betweenIndiaandNorwayareemphasized.OnthefirstpageofUngmanninyttland,the

smellofnew-mownhayinNorway,similartosmellsherecallsfromIndia,remindsAkasthat

heisonthesameplanet(9);butonlyalittlelater,impressedbytheperceivedqualitiesof

theNorwegianenvironment,hefindsheisinfactonanotherplanet(20).Gill’sbooks,with

theirhistoricalperspective,repeatedlyutilizethetoposoftheunique,thelast,thefirst,and

thenew:inHarjeet,thelastsummerthefamilycelebratestherainstogether(113),Harjeet

being the first immigrant tomove inatÅssiden,apartofDrammen inNorway (171), the

firstwhitemanAkassees,at theairportonthewaytoNorway(249); towardstheendof

Ung mann i nytt Land, Akas is compared by his brother Suraj with record-breaking

adventurers,remindingthereaderofAkas’imaginationsofverticalmovement:“Akasmust

bethefirst,hethought.SomebodyhadbeenthefirstonMountEverest,anotherhadbeen

thefirsttoflyacrosstheAtlantic,AkaswasthefirstIndianinNorwaytomovefromhome

againstthewillofhisfamily”(300).

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Comingofage

Thecorpusexaminedhereof inall6modern immigrantbook-length(ortwo-book length)

narratives of border-crossing published in Norwegian is – in keeping with its second

generationandgeneration1,5perspective–hasthecoming-of-agenarrative,thetemporal

border crossing from childhood to adulthood, in common. All are novels which invite

ethnographic and/or political readings through their documentary and testimonial

elements:Gill’s andAhmed’snovelsare realistnovelsbasedon theauthors’experiences;

Maria Amelie’s pseudonymous Ulovlig norsk (2010, ”Illegally Norwegian”) is like Aden’s

book a partly fictionalized autobiographical narrative, and contains lengthy excerpts from

herblog.

year genre diaspora migrate borders class landscape

Karim 1996 novel Pakistani work visit privil. urban

Gill1 2008 novel Sikh work originaryrevisit

non-priv. differ.

Ahmed 2008 novel Somali politics originarytransdias privil. idyll

Aden 2009 testim. Somali war originaryrevisits

non-priv. gothic

Amelie 2010 testim. Caucasus illegal originary privil. idyll

Gill2 2011 novel Sikh family originaryrevisit

non-priv.

realsymbolic

The forms of migration involved are various: reference is made to historical phases of

migration (Pakistani immigration in the 1970s and Somali immigration in the 1990s and

2000s);someofthebooksdealwithworkmigrationwitherbytheirprotagonistsorbytheir

parents,somespecificallywithdifferentformsofrefugees(Amalisachildsoldierrefugee,

Marie’s familyarepolitical refugees,whileSara is the first refugeegrantedasylumonthe

basisoffaith–asaconverttoChristianity,shehasbeenpersecutedforapostasy).Thereis

an equal balance between migrants coming from privileged backgrounds and migrants

coming from poorer backgrounds. All except one (Amelie’s book) are stories of legal

migrants and their children. Somedescribeoriginalborder-crossings fromother countries

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either by parents or children with visits or revisits to countries of origin; one (Ahmed)

describesatransdiasporicvisit.

One key to an understanding of changing border concepts in this corpus seems to be

historicalchangesinmobilities,withcheaperairtravelallowingformorefrequentjourneys

back and forth across borders. These are all narratives which challenge the monolithic

stereotypeofmigration,inwhichborder-crossingisrelegatedtoapast,originarymoment.

Another key is the identity of the oppressions and conflicts involved in these stories, the

cause inashiftofnarrativeopponents. Ifpreviouslyoppressionwasexternal,takingplace

withinapostcolonialorneocolonialframework,andemphasizingeverydayracism,nowthe

narrativearemorecomplex,withborders internalized todiasporasand to families.These

forms of oppression are regulated by the polarities of honour and transgression, by

modernization processes, and by gender and the body. Increasingly Norwegians become

ambivalent,oftentakingontheroleofnarrativehelpersinrelationtosecondgenerationor

generation1,5migrants.

Broadlyspeaking,theborderfiguresandborderconfigurationsproducedinthesenarratives

canbesortedintotwodifferentdiscourses,oneofculturalidentitiesanddifferenceandone

ofpersonalidentitiesanddevelopment(Bildung).Thesecometogetherinmigrantliterature

whennarrativesofthetransformationofidentityareembeddedintheextendedmigration

borderscape(Nyman2015).Inthediscourseofculturalidentitiesanddifference,thecorpus

producedimagesofanextendedborder-crossingordisseminatedborder,ofadisorienting

in-between,ofthealienationsanddefamiliarizationsofculturaldifference,ofthedivisions

andclashesofculturalhybridityandambiguity,ofacoastalsurfsignifyingborderidentities,

and of oxymoronic paradoxes (e.g. the title of Amelie’s book, ”IllegallyNorwegian”). This

discourse is one already well-established in the theoretical conceptualizations of

postcolonial theory, while the discourse of personal identity complicates this somewhat.

Here we find the liminal states of coming-of-age, a focus on bodily borders, topoi of

captivity, escape and protection, the figure of flying, an imagined utopian homeland for

exileswhichmayfunctionas”transcommunity”ofliteratureandbeconnectedtooriginary

idylls,andinextensionofthatplotsofcrossingtheborderintowriting.

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Comingtowriting

The corpus examined here is made up of texts which are to a lesser or greater degree

performances,eitherstagedperformancesofperformativityoractualperformativeactions

inthepublicsphere.Writingandvariousaspectsofwriting–accesstowriting,becominga

writer, access to originary andNorwegian literary cultures – take on amajor role in this

performativity. I have alreadydescribedhowelementsof especiallyAden’s,Ahmed’s and

Gill’sbookpointtothesymboliccrossingintowritingasbeingpartoftheextendedSomali-

Norwegian,Somali-transdiasporicorIndian-Norwegianborder-crossings.Theexcerptsfrom

Rasmussen’s writer’s notebooks in her Skyggeferden make clear that it is the story of a

writerwhoonedaywillwritethenovelthereaderisnowreading.ButitisMariaAmelie’s

pseudonymously-publishedUlovlignorsk,likeAden’sMindrømomfrihetanautobiography

whichborrowstechniquesfrommoreliterarygenresforthesakeofanonymity,whichisthe

mostclearlyperformativepieceofwritinginthecorpus.

TheplotlineofAmelie’sbookcanbereconstructedchronologicallyasaBildungsroman-like

journeyleadingfromachildhoodintheCaucasustothewritingofthebookitselfintheyear

before its publication in 2010, leaving an ellipsis at the end in which the readers – a

significant part of the Norwegian public, judging by its sales figures – must reconstruct

events (the author’s subsequent arrest anddeportation, followedbyher readmittance to

Norway) through reference tomedia reports.Amelie’s family arrives as refugees froman

anonymizedcountryintheCaucasusinMoscowin1997andseekasyluminFinlandin2000

and thenafter rejectionof theirapplication inFinland, inNorway in2002.After renewed

rejectionofanapplicationforasylumstatusinNorway,thefamilychosestogointohiding

as illegal immigrants, where they are caught between despondency and successful

integration into local Norwegian society, as Maria records in her diary. An imperfect

bureaucracyallowsMariatostudyattheNorwegianUniversityofScienceandTechnology

(NTNU) inTrondheimandtotakeadegree insocialanthropology,keepingananonymous

blogwhichisreproducedinthebook.Encouragedbyacorrespondencewiththeacclaimed

socialanthropologistThomasHyllandEriksenattheUniversityofOslo,shewritesabook–

thebook the reader is reading – detailing her life as an illegal immigrant inNorway. The

book and the blog combine to make Maria Amelie into a cause célèbre in Norway.

Campaigns are launched to grant her asylum status in Norway, and after the book is

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launchedbothnamedNorwegianoftheyearandarrestedatapublicspeakingengagement

attheNansenSchoolinLillehammer,tobedeportedtoRussia.Aminorchangeinthelaw,

knownas“LexAmelie”,enableshertoapplyforastaypermitinNorwayandtakeupajob

as a journalist. The book may thus be read as part of an application for Norwegian

residence,butalsopartoftheprocessofbecomingNorwegian,crossingtheculturalborder.

ThebordertowritingbecomesthebordertoNorway.

While written more as a testimonial than as a literary text, the book actively uses

metaphors,forexamplesupportingitsperformativityintheshortprologuewiththehelpof

strong,metaphoricoppositionsinadirectaddresstothereader:“AfterreadingthisbookI

wantyoutoliftyourgazeandseetheworldinanotherway.Iwantyoutoseeperspectives,

not details. I want you to see the sunset on the horizon and not the screen of your

computer”(11).Thebookbegins,inthetextualborder-crossingintothetext,withadirect

stagingofthetextualborderbetweentextandreader,framedinametaphorical language

focusingonepistemologicalplacesofbordering.

Early on in the book the illegal crossing into Norway from Finland, by way of the less

populatedroutethroughtheNorthofFinlandtoKilpisjärviandthentoTromsø,isdescribed

indetail(16-17).Thistakesplaceinacarwhichisthreateningtobreakdown,atnightinthe

snowywinterdarkness.Thetextcarefullydelineatesalackofdifferentiationandofborders

in Finland: “Weareapproaching theborder toNorway. Thewhite snowmergeswith the

sky,naturelooksemptyandlifeless”(16).As inmanyborder-crossingscenes,thecrossing

becomes a place of reflection, opening up a liminal space in the textwhereAmelie goes

through the motivations of her parents in want to make this journey (17). The border-

crossing itself, again typically, is displaced and disseminated across space and time. On

driving through the border post the narrator exclaims: “We drive through! We are in

Norway!Andasifneedsomethingtomakeusbelievethis,asignappears:’Norway’.[…]We

driveformanykilometreswithoutmeetingasinglecar,justwinterdarkness.Wearereally

inNorway!”(17).3Then,instrongcontrasttothe“desertedwaste”(16)inFinlandandalso,

3Theborderpostispresumablythepolicedcustomspostsomedistanceawayfromtheactualborder,insideFinland,soinfacttheyarenotinNorwayoncetheyhavegonethroughtheborderpost.However,themarked

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as it becomes apparent, toMoscow,Norwaybecome the subject of the sublime and the

domesticatonce:

Istareoutofthewindowinastonishment.Naturehaschangedsoquickly,nowitis

earthshakingly beautiful. Mountains, mountains, mountains, mountains, tall

mountains!JustlikeathomeintheCaucasus!Iturnaroundrestlesslyinthecar,look

upanddownandleftandrightandoutthroughthebackwindow.AtlastIcansee

mountains again, themountainswhichhavebeenpartofmy life frombirth. They

didn’t have anything like this in Moscow. And not in Finland either. Magical

[eventyrlige],majesticalmountains!(17)

In a form of matrixial borderlinking, the Norwegian mountains function as a pseudo-

umbilical cord to Amelie’s birthplace and original home. As is often the case in border

crossings,anelementofthefantastic is introduced–themountainsarenotonlysublime,

but“[e]ventyrlige”(“magical”,ormoredirectlytranslated,“fairy-tale-like”).

The word eventyrlig is also used in foreword to the book (entitled “To the reader”, this

precedestheprologuementionedbefore)inawaywhichconnectsittotheoxymoron(and

borderfigure)ofthetitleUlovlignorsk. ItsignifiestheambivalenceofAmelie’sNorwegian

existence:“My lifeherehasbeenstrange,sad,butat thesametimemagical [eventyrlig]”

(8).MagicalNorwegianness,herefurtherspecifiedasconnectedtotheloveandfriendship

of thepeopleshemeets inNorway,comestogetherwithsad illegality,hereconnectedto

the brutality of the law. The ambivalence is in itself “strange [merkelig]”, partaking in an

uncanninessoftheborder.

Theeventyrligeormagicalishoweveralsoconnectedwiththegenreoftheeventyr(“fairy-

tale”),andinthedescriptionoftheborder-crossingintoNorway,withtheactivityofstory-

telling and specifically of telling stories to children, that is to say in anoriginary sceneof

narration. In terms of the border figures involved, the image of the Norwegian – or

Caucasian – mountains on the border in Amalie’s Ulovlig norsk, with their sublime

andsignedborderisfollowedatashortdistanceintoNorwaybyasimpleroadsignsaying“Norge”(“Norway”).

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verticality,canbereadascorrespondingtothescenediscussedearlierofstory-tellingunder

thestarsinarooflesshouseinMogadishuinAden’sMindrømomfrihet.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank listeners at various conferences and symposia for their questions, not least members of the Border Poetics/Border Culture group in Tromsø who discussed an earlier draft.

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