One of the coolest trends in literature is the proliferation of graphic novels as a format for addressing serious issues. Alison Bechdel, Daniel Clowes, and Chris Ware are just a few author/artists who have demonstrated that graphic novels can be high art and great literature. The most dramatic and influential graphic novel of the late … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Graphic Novels
I used to think I was exiled from my country. But, in retracing the steps of my past, I have understood that I was exiled from my childhood. Which seems so much crueler. Exile is always a profoundly traumatic experience. But what of those exiled twice? While the world is largely aware of the Rwandan genocide … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Burundi’s Gaël Faye
“The invisibility in which we live next to one another is appalling" Perhaps the only thing more painful than leaving a beloved country behind is to realize that one's former country no longer exists. Emigres from the former Yugoslavia find themselves in this perplexing, and bewildering predicament: are they now merely Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian? If, … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Dubravka Ugrešić
"…where we come from the greatest achievement is to leave.” Arguably one of the richest traditions in exile literature is that of Cuban Americans. Given the strong economic and cultural ties between the two countries before Castro's revolution in 1959, it was hardly surprising that so many Cubans who fled the Communist takeover made the … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Cuba in the fiction of Cristina Garcia, Ana Menendez, and Achy Obejas
To read global literature is to accept the compromise of translation. Even the most polyglot among us cannot hope to read everything that interests us in its original language. English has become the somewhat grudgingly accepted lingu franca for most of the world, yet to read and write in English is to speak the colonizer's … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Yesterday, we read about the Rohingya of Myanmar, whose story has only recently become well known outside of the region. A far more familiar story of community exile is that of the Tibetans. 60 years after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, up to 100,000 Tibetan Buddhists live in exile in India, mostly in Dharamsala, … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Tibet
Hello again! Many of the authors we will read about this month were exiled in isolation, for their individual acts of dissent or rebellion. Yet there are stories of entire communities exiled and driven from their homelands. One such expulsion that has captured world attention in recent years is that of the Rohingya. Although they … Continue reading Literature of Exile: The Rohingya #ExileLit
My name is Lesley Williams, and I am guest editing the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative blog for November. What a tremendous honor! As a librarian, I enjoy combining my love of beautiful writing with advancing social justice. So what better theme to choose that the literature of exile? Ovid, Dante, Victor Hugo, Wole Soynika, … Continue reading #ExileLit Welcome to the Literature of Exile
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 