engleski

The Novel as a Document, Migration as a Story and Kristian Novak's Gypsy, But the Fairest of Them All.

In contrast to media representations of migration which are based on the mechanisms of the border spectacle, victimization or demonization of people on the move, literature, as is often stated, tells stories about migration that cannot be heard elsewhere. Moreover, as the argument goes, literature in some instances offers a powerful and original critique of the premises and procedures of the European migration regime (e. g. Baal 2022, Bakara 2020, Whoolly 2014). In that framework, so- called migrant or refugee literatures serve as social and cultural repositories, archives or documents of present-day perilous escapes, clandestine journeys and everyday struggles of “unwanted” migrants from the Global South. Based on Kristian Novak's novel Ciganin, ali najljepši (Gipsy, But the Fairest of Them All), this paper explores documentary strategies employed in the production of such an understanding of literature. Textual and paratextual strategies (such as authorial, political, literary critics and academic interpretations, narrative modes and typographical markers, citation and repetition) related to the perception of this novel as a document will be outlined and confronted with the focus of the contemporary European migration regime on the narrative self-presentation of migrants and the (non)authenticity of their life stories. By juxtapositioning representations of these narratives in fiction, media and scholarly literature, this paper strives to contribute to the discussion about the socially transformative potentials of literature, as well as to the debate about the discursive basis of decisions on the lives and statuses of refugees and other migrants in Europe.

document, literature, irregularized migration, Kristian Novak, Gipsy, But the Fairest of Them All

nije evidentirano