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We live in an age of migration and more and more authors have migrant backgrounds. Migration and Literature offers a thorough and thought provoking examination of the thematic and formal role of migration in four contemporary and canonized novelists, G?nter Grass, Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, and Jan Kj?rstad. This book examines how these novelists reflect, problematize, and “resolve” the problems set by the migratory world and analyzes how the novels employ discursive strategies which emphasize their migratory and homeless form.
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Migration and Literature This page intentionally left blank Migration and Literature Günter Grass, Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, and Jan Kjærstad Søren Frank MIGRATION AND LITERATURE Copyright © Søren Frank, 2008. All rights reserved. An earlier version of the “Territories and Histories” section in the chapter on Günter Grass originally appeared in the Belfast-located journal Quest (vol. 2, 2006) under the title “Territories and Histories. Transgressive ‘Space Travels’ and ‘Time Travels’ in Grass’s Dog Years.” First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the US - a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN-13: 978-0-230-60828-3 ISBN-10: 0-230-60828-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frank, Søren. Migration and literature : Günter Grass, Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, and Jan Kjærstad/by Søren Frank. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-230-60828-0 (alk. paper) 1. European fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Emigration and immigration in literature. 3. Grass, Günter, 1927—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Kundera, Milan—Criticism and interpretation. 5. Rushdie, Salman—Criticism and interpretation. 6. Kjærstad, Jan, 1953—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PN3352.E45F73 2008 809'.933552—dc22 2008007260 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Macmillan India Ltd. First edition: October 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. for Sofie, who in her movements knows nothing about the inertia of matter This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Prolegomena: Toward a Literature of Migration 1 1 2 3 4 Günter Grass The Birth of the Trilogy Heroes against Absurdity Territories and Histories Linguistic Diarrhea Return of the Storyteller Milan Kundera Heroes of Nonbelonging The Modern Homecoming The Art of Composition Return of the Authorial Narrator Salman Rushdie Heroes of Disorientation Language Deterritorialized DissemiNation Rhizomatic Forms Jan Kjærstad Narratorial Oscillations Norway Glocalized Kaleidoscopic Form and Human Identity 31 34 38 48 64 69 79 84 95 111 119 129 132 152 156 162 177 181 187 191 Epilegomena: Literary Studies and the Canon 197 Notes 205 Bibliography 217 Index 229 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments I am grateful to the many colleagues and friends who have been so generous as to let their ideas flow into this book. At the University of Southern Denmark, I want to thank Sten Pultz Moslund, “the phantom walkin