Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REWRITE (Rewriting Migrant Identities across Women’s Literature)
Période du rapport: 2021-05-01 au 2023-04-30
The questions of identity formation and reconstruction are crucial in today’s debate concerning migration, human rights, and gender equality in Europe. The EU-funded REWRITE project has deepened our understanding of the European Pillar of Social Rights and has helped to rethink the EU’s integration and social cohesion policies through the analysis of the literary production. It has done this by examining migrant literary works produced by women during 20th and 21st centuries. The project has conducted a comparative study on the consequences of deconstructing and reconstructing migrant-women identities. Exploring self-reflexivity in migrant women writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, the project has identified turning points that are necessary for identity transformation.The overall objective (OO) has been to highlight: a) the value of a critical and comparative literary analysis form past and present women’s literary production based on migration experiences and identity transformation processes; b) the potential of a hybrid identity de/reconstruction processes in human mobility in the European integration process, to address the current EU’s societal challenges related to migrations/mobility and the visualisation of gender inequalities in critical self-reflexive women’s writings.
The main findings establish the existence of a parallel identity of origin/host country. The narrative strategies of transnational writings give rise to an unorganized, unstructured and uninstitutionalized social movement.The writing is a strong tool for denouncing the reality of human mobility and the topics linked to the false integration processes, analysed in the several novels from the intersectional perspective. In the agency of women migrant writers and migrant writing, there is a movement of socio-political and cultural participation and a will for overcoming the mental health problems.
The main findings establish the existence of a parallel identity of origin/host country. The narrative strategies of transnational writings give rise to an unorganized, unstructured and uninstitutionalized social movement.The writing is a strong tool for denouncing the reality of human mobility and the topics linked to the false integration processes, analysed in the several novels from the intersectional perspective. In the agency of women migrant writers and migrant writing, there is a movement of socio-political and cultural participation and a will for overcoming the mental health problems.
REWRITE will explore identities de/reconstruction processes in the migrant literary works produced by women during the last two centuries, in order to contribute to the European Pillar of Social Rights and to rethink the European Union’s (EU) integration and social cohesion policies from an intersectional perspective. The main aim is to explore the transformation process in migrant women’s identities, by exploring the self-reflexivity in migrant women writers from a critical discourse analysis, advocating for social change, which is crucial for a new understanding of the limitation of politics. REWRITE aims to bridge the gap between gender-based human mobility and social change via the comparative analysis between the European integration policies and the role and impact on the simultaneous processes of identities de/reconstruction, by: 1) analysing existent emblematic novels from 20th and 21st centuries focused on two main dilemmas: identity and belonging; integration and exclusion; 2) creating a new body of critic women’s writings, “tradition much ignored due to the inferior position of women in male-dominated societies”, related to human mobility. The project’s timeline will examine the body of migrant, exile, intercultural literature of women writers from the multidimensional analytical lens of the migratory career (as key for the identification of central turning points articulated in women’s heterogeneous biographies and in-between transformation spaces for self-realisation. Core questions are: Which are the main dominant discourses (systemic) and experiences (individual) about race, class, gender roles, shaping migrant women identities and critical writings, linked to power/oppression relationships? Which are migrant women’s positioning and representations in-between spaces? Might be literature expression of identity construction processes in challenge of dominant writing and opinions? Rethinking identities is relevant for gender equality and social cohesion.
REWRITE explored the processes of identity de/reconstruction in the literary works of migrant women produced in the 20th and 21st centuries, in order to contribute to the European Pillar of Social Rights and to rethink European Union (EU) policies of social inclusion and social cohesion from an intersectional perspective. The main objective was to explore the process of transformation of migrant women's identities, exploring the self-reflexivity of migrant women writers through a critical discourse analysis, advocating for social change, which is crucial for a new understanding of the limitation of politics. REWRITE aimed to bridge the gap between gendered human mobility and social change through comparative analysis of European integration policies and the role and impact on simultaneous processes of identity de/reconstruction, by: 1) analysing existing emblematic novels from the 20th and 21st centuries centred on two main dilemmas: identity and belonging; integration and exclusion (WP3); 2) creating a new corpus of women's critical writings, "a tradition much ignored due to women's inferiority position in male-dominated societies", related to human mobility (WP4). The project timeline examined the corpus of migrant, exile and intercultural literature of women writers from the multidimensional analytical lens of migratory careers (as a key to the identification of central turning points articulated in women's heterogeneous biographies and intermediate spaces of transformation for self-fulfilment. The main questions were: What are the main dominant (systemic) discourses and (individual) experiences of race, class, gender roles that shape migrant women's critical identities and writings related to power/oppression relations? What are the positionings and representations of migrant women in intermediate spaces? Could literature be an expression of identity construction processes that challenge dominant writings and opinions? Rethinking identities is important for gender equality and social cohesion.
The analysis of sources and narrative texts established a connection with the initial hypothesis of the existence of a hybrid literature, but not a hybrid identity. The identity is in the process of deconstruction and reconstruction, and is mainly defined as oblique, suspended and fluid (this hypothesis is dealt with in an article that is under review).
On the basis of the comparative reading, the existence of a migrant literary corpus as part of transnational literature, which transcends the borders of national literature, is inferred. Furthermore, the main findings of the analysis showed that the narrative strategies of transnational writings give rise to an unorganised, unstructured and non-institutionalised social movement created by female migrant writers who see transnational literature as a space for socio-political denunciation and participation.
In the agency of women migrant writers there is a movement of socio-political and cultural participation. There is activism based on the assertion of migrant rights, the connection to writing as a socio-political and cultural means of expression, as well as therapeutic. There are two basic types of writing: a) private writing with personal therapeutic characteristics, of personal diaries, for example; and b) public writing, that of novels, which has a characteristic of social, political and cultural activism.
In addition, an interactive map is being created, bringing together this corpus of female migrant writers at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The analysis of sources and narrative texts established a connection with the initial hypothesis of the existence of a hybrid literature, but not a hybrid identity. The identity is in the process of deconstruction and reconstruction, and is mainly defined as oblique, suspended and fluid (this hypothesis is dealt with in an article that is under review).
On the basis of the comparative reading, the existence of a migrant literary corpus as part of transnational literature, which transcends the borders of national literature, is inferred. Furthermore, the main findings of the analysis showed that the narrative strategies of transnational writings give rise to an unorganised, unstructured and non-institutionalised social movement created by female migrant writers who see transnational literature as a space for socio-political denunciation and participation.
In the agency of women migrant writers there is a movement of socio-political and cultural participation. There is activism based on the assertion of migrant rights, the connection to writing as a socio-political and cultural means of expression, as well as therapeutic. There are two basic types of writing: a) private writing with personal therapeutic characteristics, of personal diaries, for example; and b) public writing, that of novels, which has a characteristic of social, political and cultural activism.
In addition, an interactive map is being created, bringing together this corpus of female migrant writers at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.