Precarious Refugee

Self-Optimization and Neoliberal Rationality in Rawi Hage’s Cockroach

Bibliographic Data

ID21728955
AuthorsShahab Nadimi (0000-0001-7523-0677, University of Alberta, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume26
Issue1
Publication date2024-08-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCLCWeb Comparative Literature and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1481-4374 • E-ISSN: 1481-4374
PublisherPurdue University (bepress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.7771/1481-4374.4062
OpenAlexW4402127946
LanguageEN
References cited16

In his article "Precarious Refugee: Self-Optimization and Neoliberal Rationality in Rawi Hage’s Cockroach," Shahab Nadimi examines Rawi Hage’s Cockroach as an example of refugee literature in the light of current debates about neoliberal biopolitics and the idea of a new form of life. Refugees, who are neither identified as citizens nor totally as strangers, are forced to compete in unequal circumstances of economic mobility with other citizens, often leaving them in a condition of personal debts, unemployment, and mental distress. Nadimi investigates Cockroach’s depiction of psychological breakdown, suicidal attempts, and metamorphosis as symptomatic of and critical to the neoliberal promissory claim of individual success as well as possible resistance to the biopolitical practices of the neoliberal structures. Finally, Nadimi argues that Cockroach’s narrative of discontent occupies an interstitial space as a transitory mode of resistance to the neoliberal objectification of individuals as bundles of financial obligation and costs

Political science · Rationality · Refugee · Sociology · Homelessness and Social Issues · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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