Torn Between Identities – How the Concept of Identity Is Negotiated in the Poetry of Migration

 

Literatur  |  Philosophie  |  Sprache

 

Noëmi Glauser, 2005 | Wünnewil, FR

 

Poetry of migrationIt engages with the question of who someone is and what is necessary in order to identify with a place. This paper explores how the concept of identity is negotiated in the poetry of migration by analysing five poems written by four different contemporary poets of migration: Oscar Gonzales, Warsan Shire, Ocean Vuong and Rupi Kaur. Even though the poets differ in their heritage, their gender, and their journey of migration, they have all immigrated to the English-speaking world and nowadays, due to their education and academic careers, are living in similarly privileged circumstances. Their shared interest in experiences of living in a Western country as a person with a migration background suggest that issues linked to migration are much more about structures and systems imposed on people perceived as migrants.

Introduction

Against a backdrop of increasing international migration, the feeling of being torn between identities, the sensation of belonging neither to a country of origin nor to a new host country is omnipresent in our contemporary world. Therefore, this paper explores how the concept of identity is negotiated in the poetry of migration and engages with this feeling of the “in between.” More precisely, it focuses on the lives of four contemporary poets of migration and how these poets negotiate identity throughout their poetry.

Methods

In a first section, this work presents a theoretical engagement with the concept of migration, the theme of migration in contemporary poetry, the concept of identity and the representation of identity in migrant literature. That theoretical part forms the background for the following analysis of the selected poems “We All Return to the Place We Were Born” by Oscar Gonzales (2007), “Midnight in the Foreign Food Aisle” by Warsan Shire (2022), “Self-portrait as exit wounds” by Ocean Vuong (2016), as well as the poems “immigrant” and “accent” by Rupi Kaur (2017). In order to enable a precise analysis of the different poems, this paper precedes each analysis with a historical contextualisation of the conflicts and crises that led to a given poet’s emigration from their country of origin.

Results

It seems that the issues described by the four poets linked to migration are of structural rather than personal nature, since Western societies tend to regard migrants as a relatively homogenous mass of people without subjectivity. In light of this, literature and especially poetry seem to be an effective way to support the reconstruction of a “personal identity,” something which society often denies to migrants. Throughout my paper, I have observed that the personal identity of the different poets, or a respective poem’s speaker, is heavily influenced by social identity. More precisely, the recurring aspects “acceptance,” “expectation to assimilate,” “education,” “ethnicity and the culture that goes with it,” and “language,” which are part of one’s social identity, seem to have a strong influence on how the four poets of migration picture identity throughout their poems.

Discussion

In migrant literature scholarship, the concept of identity and the problems that go with it have been widely discussed throughout the last years. However, looking at poetry with its intrinsic emphasis on subjective experience, and comparing the experience of different poets of migration, emerges as a promising method to create links between the subjective and structural side of migration. Poetry is a low-threshold way of expressing oneself. Many other forms of artistic expression such as painting or music require specific knowledge, material and skills, which can be a first hurdle. The same goes for literature in general, since one must be able to master a language quite perfectly in order to write long, coherent texts. By contrast, contemporary poetry is more accessible insofar as, no rules concerning the use of language, formal aspects and imagination are carved in stone. I have shown that poetry can be used to draw attention to the gaps between people of the Western society and people who are perceived as migrants. Therefore, it could be used as starting point for further explorations regarding a positive approach towards migrations through poetry, and even for practical attempts to close that gap.

Conclusions

Even though poetry of migration reflects the concept of identity as a never-ending search for where someone belongs to and who someone truly is, it presents an effective way possibility to relate the personal fates of migrants to structural problems on the one hand and a societal system of perceiving people of migration on the other.

 

 

Würdigung durch den Experten

Andrin Albrecht

This paper addresses two extremely timely and relevant topics: international migration and a new mass appeal of poetry. Looking at four contemporary poets—Oscar Gonzales, Warsan Shire, Ocean Vuong, and Rupi Kaur—Noëmi Glauser investigates how poetry engages with personal histories of migration and how it negotiates the dislocation of identity that accompanies them. She synthesizes these negotiations into a nuanced and highly readable case for poetry as both a means of coming to terms with a migration background and for other people in host countries to better understand a migrant’s plight.

Prädikat:

sehr gut

 

 

 

Kollegium St. Michael, Fribourg
Lehrerin: Sandra Chetany