Call for papers

The period between 1830 and 1940 witnessed the most dramatic population movement in recorded history. Motivated by economic, religious and political upheavals, millions of migrants left their familiar homes in search of a better life, whereby the Atlantic functioned as one of the central thoroughfares. Many of these travelers left testimonies of their journeys, whether in written or oral form. Traditionally such narratives have been approached within the framework of either the source or the receiving societies, and consequently most research energy has been invested in the ways migrants managed or failed to adapt to new conditions, how they reconciled the often conflicting impressions of the new culture with the one they were born into. Studies of this kind often start from a preset agenda regarding the nature or development of a specific culture. In reaction to such restricted national or subnational perspectives, recent approaches in migration research and literary and cultural studies address no longer just the starting or end points of migration movements but also the diverse trajectories before and after the journey, as well as the role of corporations and agencies involved in oceanic travel. The aim of Tales of Transit is to bring together these new insights and methodologies and confront them with the rich but underexplored archive of transatlantic migrant narratives.

Transit places — docks, hotels, railway coaches, inspection offices, dormitories, churches, ship’s decks, etc. — normally figure only marginally in migrant narratives. They are mentioned in passing, as a prelude or even in counterpoint to the new life that waits after the journey. Precisely because of this, these peripatetic places (both in a literal and a figurative sense) can help us to challenge received notions about migration as a form of one-way traffic whereby supposedly nothing is lost or gained along the way, and to reconceptualize it as a multicausal process. In view of the opening of the Red Star Line/People on the Move museum in Antwerp, Tales of Transit takes the city as its starting point to rethink transatlantic migration. We encourage contributions offering comparative perspectives on migrants traveling through well-known as well as lesser known ports in Europe, Africa and the Americas. The focus may be broadened to include mainland cities functioning as nodal points for migration flows or border crossing points on the frontier between states or regions. Overall, the stress lies on how such liminal spaces are narrated or visualized: How vital are these sites or loci for the narrative? Do they affirm or rather subvert the migrants’ aspirations and hopes? Does the perspective shift in accordance with the medium or audience expectations and, if so, in what ways?   

Within the framework sketched out above, we have selected a number of subtopics, one or more of which can form the basis of paper or panel proposals:

Language and Translation
Whether transmitted through writing or not, migrant narratives are inevitably subject to, or involved in translation. To convey his or her story, the migrant has to choose a language: either that of the home culture or that of the adoptive country, or else, something in between. How do such translation processes contribute to the construction of an “authentic” account? What if there are several mother or father tongues to choose from? Does that mean there is more than one “original” narrative? Or could it be there is none (as with fake translations)? How common are self-translations and how are they different from or similar to other translations? What, finally, is the status of retranslations?

Migration as Business
Migration is never a matter of individual stories of tragedy or success alone, but also constitutes a flourishing business. Comparative research on the competition between ocean lines and intermediary agencies for the recruitment of migrants is still in its infancy. In what ways did such corporations play a role in preselecting the trajectories of migrants? Did the agents of these companies differentiate along ethnic, religious and/or linguistic lines? What was the impact of steamship lobbies on national and international immigration legislation? How important were aid organizations and charities? Do touristic routes overlap with migration routes, and, if so, in what ways do these economies obstruct or facilitate each other?

Iconography of Migration
Passing migrants do not often leave a lasting imprint on the cultural life of a nation or community, yet traces survive in most transit places. The advertisements by which companies used to lure migrants constitute a visual culture in its own right, the stereotypes and counterstereotypes circulating in the local press another. Paradoxically, even while serving as instruments of transnational displacement, ocean lines at the same time constitute emblems of national pride. How do (sub-)national literatures of the period 1830-1940 represent migrants? What role do museums and monuments play in the construction or subversion of stock images about migrants in transit places? To what extent do for instance cartoons and other more or less popular art forms serve to set off “good” from “bad” or “new” from “old” migrants?

Archiving Testimonies
Migrant narratives are almost by definition difficult to locate in library collections. An important heuristic question is how we can gain access to the migrant narratives that are dispersed all over the globe. This also involves broader issues of visibility and belonging. Should there be a kind of Schengen Convention or Free Trade Agreement for migrant testimonies? Should collections cut across ethnic, national, linguistic and other faultlines, or should they preserve them? Institutionalizing the migrant heritage may always appear paradoxical, as such initiatives tend to pin down what is not directly localizable. Given that successful migrant groups tend to dissolve themselves, what would be a viable policy toward the preservation and memorialization of migrant narratives?

Paper proposals in English of no more 300 words can be submitted to michael.boyden@hogent.be or liselotte.vandenbussche@hogent.be by December 15, 2009.
The academic committee will evaluate the abstracts and send out notifications of acceptance by the end of November.
Each participant will be given 20 minutes to present, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. A selection of papers will be published in the conference proceedings.