Refugee Aesthetics in African Diaspora Fiction

this study examines the representation of refugees in african diaspora literatures, i.e. the literary and discursive strategies (Anglophone) authors in the african diaspora use to explore the refugee issue in their writing. through migration is undoubtedly one of the central themes in diaspora and postcolonial studies, in recent years the all too romanticised concept of the nomad has been increasingly criticised, as has the theoritical disregard for the economic and political circumstances of the refugees. starting from a critical appraisal of postcolonial theories on the subject of migration and the publications of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, this study explores the field of tension between postcolonial, sociological/legal and literary representations of refugees, with the aim of formulating a "refugee aesthetics" -to adapt Mieke Bal's term.