In the contemporary transcultural and transnational context, migration purportedly has geopolitical, social and cultural implications for individuals and national communities across the globe. In recent times, however, public engagements with migration have often presented this phenomenon negatively. Social and mass media as well as political discourses that emphasise ultra-conservative understandings of national identity often regard migration as extraneous to national communities. In order to challenge this misconception there is a need to produce research-based analyses that examine how migration is necessarily inherent to narratives of individual and collective identity. This is an area with which literary studies has engaged in recent years, particularly through the analysis of migrant experiences in fictional texts. The aim of this study, however, is to move beyond these thematic examinations and to suggest that migration has had more far-reaching effects in national literary systems, as exemplified in the cases of contemporary Irish and British literatures. This study shows how migration changes worldviews not only of migrants and migrant authors, but also of writers of non-migrant background thus proving the central role that migration plays in articulating narratives of individual and collective identity in a context of unavoidable transculturality fostered by globalisation.
To improve our users’ experience, we use cookies on the du.se website for analytical purposes. By choosing to surf our website, you also accept the use of cookies.
