‘Arriving in Strange Places’

The Chronotope of Movement Control in Contemporary Migration and World Literature

Bibliographic Data

ID22132035
AuthorsJesper Gulddal (0000-0002-0888-8919, University of Newcastle Australia, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume10
Issue1
Pages27-46
Publication date2025-02-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of World Literature (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2405-6472 • E-ISSN: 2405-6480
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/24056480-01001003
OpenAlexW4407973112
LanguageEN
References cited4

This article explores the status and functionality of passport and border control practices in contemporary migration literature, analysing such interfacing with the global passport regime as a “chronotope of movement control”. As a first step, it outlines the history of this chronotope and shows how movement control practices have impacted on the genre of the novel in various ways at least since the mid-eighteenth century. Having established this historical context, the article goes on to analyse the representation and narrative utilisation of passports and borders in five migration novels, each focusing on a different continental setting and different border hot spot: Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea (2001), T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain (1995), Herta Müller’s Der Mensch ist ein grosser Fasan auf der Welt (1986), Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Partir (2006) and Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains (2017). By way of conclusion, the article discusses how the chronotope of movement control establishes a link between migration literature and world literature – not only because it has become a staple of migration literature worldwide, but also because it highlights questions of exclusion, access and cross-border circulation that are central to both forms of literature

History · Information Systems Theories and Implementation

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