Literature: The Literature of Migration

Migration brings its fascinations and its tragedies; it has been the subject of literature since ancient times. For this course, we will be discussing works from the earliest forms of English up the present day. We will be reflecting on texts including an Anglo-Saxon poet’s description of exile, modern-day song lyrics and an extract from Elif Shafak’s 2021 novel The Island of Missing Trees. Passages from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and prose fiction including Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo and Rose Tremain’s The Road Home will also be studied. Part of our discussion will be focused on poems by authors including Martín Espada, Jackie Kay, Sarah Maguire and Zaffar Kunial. Changing genre, our set text for study will be a range of short stories from The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Themes such as family, economics, aspiration and unity will be only some of the ideas we will be exploring together. There will be many more! Together, we will be seeking to understand the stories which emerge from migration, and what methods writers draw upon to portray this fundamental experience.