Prolegomena: Toward a Literature of Migration

Abstract

During the twentieth century, we witnessed the revenge of a new nomadic life form over the hitherto hegemonic settler life-form. Today, Daedalus has once again put on his wings in order to challenge the force of gravity and soften the roots of belonging, whereas Odysseus’s homecoming (a return to and of the same order) no longer seems possible in our contemporary world of rapid transformations. And yet, one of the defining myths of Western culture is that rather than with the feet on which we move, we imagine ourselves equipped with roots intended to keep us in place. However, the main protagonist in the twentieth century turned out to be the migrant. No longer to be looked upon as anomalous, migration has actually become the norm and has resulted in a profound renegotiation of the concepts or identity, belonging, and home.

For your Bildung you should choose the most difficult and splendid problem, but as subject for a dissertation choose no more than a very limited and remote corner.

—Nietzsche: Letter to Paul Deussen, 22 June 1868