Migrants Shaping Europe, Past and Present: Multilingual Literatures, Arts, and Cultures - Hardcover

by Helen Solterer (Editor), Vincent Joos (Editor)

This comparative collection makes the case for the sustained contribution of migrants to European literatures, arts and social cultures, in early modern times and today. Iberia/Maghreb, Sicily/Lampedusa and Calais provide key examples for composing this new chapter in cultural history.

Back Jacket

"Highly imaginative in conception and design, this book oscillates between medieval and modern to consider the migrant, the border-breaker, the refugee. Resisting anglocentric approaches, its contributors consider how written and visual arts might variously offer, for those lacking homelands, some place to live."
David Wallace, Judith Rodin Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania

What happens when we place the thousands of people migrating from today's Global South to Europe side-by-side with those in flight during medieval and early modern times? This collection writes a new chapter in European cultural history, arguing for the sustained presence of so-called migrants and their influence on the continent's cultures and languages.

Iberia/Maghreb, Sicily/Lampedusa, and Calais are the focus of the investigation. Chokepoints today, these places have been major sites of movement since the time of the Roman empire. Scholars and artists look into cases of migrants shaping cultural history through language: Spanish and Italian with Arabic and Somali, French with English and Mandarin. They probe literary fiction, arts, science, and oral accounts to describe the precarious lives of migrants and interpret their contributions.

Recognizing the contributions of multilingual migrants over centuries dismantles the colonial frames of European history, and internationalizing this history reveals the diverse expressiveness of many more of its peoples. At the heart of this collection is one crucial argument: migrants are the lifeblood of European cultures.

Author Biography

Helen Solterer is Professor of French and Francophone & Romance Studies at Duke University

Vincent Joos is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Global French Studies at Florida State University