Exiles, Migrants, Refugees - World Literary Texts, World Historical Contexts

We are living, once again, in times of forced migrations and refuge. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), by the end of 2022 around 108 million human beings worldwide were forcibly displaced, surpassing documented numbers since the two World Wars. How do historical moments of forced migration and refuge impact our understanding of national and world literatures? How does an engagement with exilic and refugee figures broaden and deepen our comprehension of world literature? How does reading history and literature together enrich our understanding of aesthetic and political representations? These questions will serve as catalysts for our Masterclass. We will begin to explore how a global framework of literary and historical comparison can be cultivated with a focus on refuge and migration.

Prof. Dr. B. Venkat Mani (Evjue-Bascom Professor in the Humanities; University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Ort: Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zürich (Details)

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