Abstract
Post-traumatic conditions are the result of wounds crossing bodily or psychic borders. At the same time, crossing territorial borders can cause traumas. How do migration narratives figure the traumatic effects of border-crossings? To answer this question, I apply a border aesthetics approach, arguing that the borderings of what may be sensed (cf. Jacques Rancière’s concept of the partage de sensible, the “distribution of the sensible”) in the borderscapes of migration narratives are often regulated by the epistemological borderings that take place in the fixations, substitutions and blind spots of trauma. I suggest that migration literature can combine different styles of presentation—for example, images and narrative—in order to create new forms of political aesthetics and counteract the desensitizing logic of media spectacle.
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Notes
- 1.
Benjamin’s original title, “Über den Begriff der Geschichte” (1991b) can be translated more directly as “On the Concept of History”.
- 2.
“Es gibt ein Bild von Klee, das Angelus Novus heißt. Ein Engel ist darauf dargestellt, der aussieht, als wäre er im Begriff, sich von etwas zu entfernen, worauf er starrt. Seine Augen sind aufgerissen, sein Mund steht offen und seine Flügel sind ausgespannt. Der Engel der Geschichte muß so aussehen. Er hat das Antlitz der Vergangenheit zugewendet. Wo eine Kette von Begebenheiten vor uns erscheint, da sieht er eine einzige Katastrophe, die unablässig Trümmer auf Trümmer häuft und sie ihm vor die Füße schleudert. Er möchte wohl verweilen, die Toten wecken und das Zerschlagene zusammenfügen. Aber ein Sturm weht vom Paradiese her, der sich in seinen Flügeln verfangen hat und so stark ist, daß der Engel sie nicht mehr schließen kann. Dieser Sturm treibt ihn unaufhaltsam in die Zukunft, der er den Rücken kehrt, während der Trümmerhaufen vor ihm zum Himmel wächst. Das, was wir den Fortschritt nennen, ist dieser Sturm.” (Benjamin 1991b: 697–698)
- 3.
In the following, Roman numerals and the letters A and B refer to theses I–XVIII and appendixes A and B of Benjamin’s text.
- 4.
“[d]ann wird uns als unsere Aufgabe die Herbeiführung des wirklichen Ausnahmezustands vor Augen stehen” (Benjamin 1991b: 697).
- 5.
“die heute bekanntlich klein und häßlich ist und sich ohnehin nich darf blicken lassen” (Benjamin 1991b: 693).
- 6.
“fungiert als ein historischer Zeitraffer” (Benjamin 1991b: 701); “das ‘ewige’ Bild der Vergangenheit” (702).
- 7.
“kristallisiert”; “einer messianischen Stillstellung des Geschehens” (Benjamin 1991b: 703).
- 8.
“Jeg ser ut av vinduet. Jeg ser og ser og jeg vil ikke se. Jeg snur meg bort. Jeg ser igjen. Men jeg ser det ikke. Trandum. Det skjer hver gang jeg flyr” (Amelie 2014: 106, my translation—the book has not been translated into English).
- 9.
Like Amelie’s Takk, Ahmeds Forberedelsen has not been translated into English.
- 10.
“Bildet […] sier mer enn Ayeeyo noensinne har kunnet fortelle. Det er fra Kairo, tatt under bryllupsreisen hennes. Hun er den ulykkeligste av kvinnene på hieroglyfen, der hun står på utsiden av pyramiden. Bestefar holder rundt skuldrene hennes og ser i kameraet uten å smile. […] I den andre hånden holder han vesken hennes. Hun ser ned, som en som feierer noe hun ikke vil” (Ahmed 2009: 165, my translation—again, the book has not been translated into English).
- 11.
“En storm kom från paradiset. Stormen var livet” (Anyuru 2013: 248).
- 12.
The formulation for bildremsa in the English translation, “a scrap of an image” (Anyuru 2015: 15), does not quite capture the meaning.
- 13.
“En svartvit bild”; “[e]tt vitnat färgfoto” (Anyuru 2013: 28); “[v]itnande polaroidbild” (36).
- 14.
“sommarhimlen är en tunnel av grå, kornig materia”; “[d]eras olivgröna kläder framträder på fotot som mörkt grå”; “deras spegelbild i det leriga vatnet är vagt urskiljbara som fläckar av grått ljus”; “[v]attnet grått, som himlen” (Anyuru 2013: 28); “[g]råskala, en radiomast skymtar i horisonten” (36).
- 15.
“Inga kadetter på bilden” (Anyuru 2013: 28).
- 16.
“Som minnen” (Anyuru 2013: 28).
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank audiences and interlocutors for their highly useful comments at presentations of various versions of this material—at the “Traumatized Borders” kick-off seminar in Joensuu, the master’s and doctoral student seminar Wolfgang Müller-Funk and Anna Babka arranged in Vienna, the “Border Images, Border Narratives” symposium in Joensuu, and the “Borderscapes, Memory and Migration” workshop in Copenhagen. Thanks also to Mats Henricsson for confirming my understanding of Swedish phrases. My research was carried out as part of the NOS-HS workshop series “Borderscapes, Memory and Migration”, and is a product of work within the EUBORDERSCAPES project (FP7-SSH-2011-1-Area 4.2.1-290775).
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Schimanski, J. (2019). Migratory Angels: The Political Aesthetics of Border Trauma. In: Horsti, K. (eds) The Politics of Public Memories of Forced Migration and Bordering in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30565-9_3
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