‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)

Some works in the British sphere have recently focused on refugees in the UK (Sahota, The Year of the Runaways, 2015) or Indian migrant workers in the UAE (Unnikrishnan, Temporary People, 2017). The former sheds light upon characters which have not often been staged in British literature, such as an...

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Autor principal:	Jaine Chemmachery
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR
Publicado:	Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2021
Materias:	refugees postcolonial literature social invisibility hospitality ethics representation Arts in general NX1-820 English language PE1-3729 English literature PR1-9680
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6731ac71a05a4028815927f84a039ba9
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6731ac71a05a4028815927f84a039ba92021-12-02T10:51:49Z‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)1168-49172271-544410.4000/ebc.11064https://doaj.org/article/6731ac71a05a4028815927f84a039ba92021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttp://journals.openedition.org/ebc/11064https://doaj.org/toc/1168-4917https://doaj.org/toc/2271-5444Some works in the British sphere have recently focused on refugees in the UK (Sahota, The Year of the Runaways, 2015) or Indian migrant workers in the UAE (Unnikrishnan, Temporary People, 2017). The former sheds light upon characters which have not often been staged in British literature, such as an “untouchable” who was forced out of the country or a man who was drawn to sell a kidney to pay for student visa. The latter, a collection of short stories, revives the ghost trope, suggesting that the often undocumented workers have spectral lives. I wish to reflect upon the representation of subaltern figures in literature and more particularly on the spectral metaphor. According to Maria del Pilar Blanco and Esther Peeren, the concept of “ghost” may refer to social outcasts, “impotent and ineffectual victims rather than powerful aggressors” (2010, x). Is the figure of the ghost in literature still empowering? Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s discussion on “marked” bodies (Strange Encounters, 46) and other theoretical works, this article discusses what literature performs on the lives, voices and bodies of marginalised figures and ponders over the ethics of writing and reading works focusing on such themes.Jaine ChemmacheryPresses Universitaires de la Méditerranéearticlerefugeespostcolonial literaturesocial invisibilityhospitalityethicsrepresentationArts in generalNX1-820English languagePE1-3729English literaturePR1-9680ENFRÉtudes Britanniques Contemporaines, Vol 61 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR
topic	refugees postcolonial literature social invisibility hospitality ethics representation Arts in general NX1-820 English language PE1-3729 English literature PR1-9680
spellingShingle	refugees postcolonial literature social invisibility hospitality ethics representation Arts in general NX1-820 English language PE1-3729 English literature PR1-9680 Jaine Chemmachery ‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)
description	Some works in the British sphere have recently focused on refugees in the UK (Sahota, The Year of the Runaways, 2015) or Indian migrant workers in the UAE (Unnikrishnan, Temporary People, 2017). The former sheds light upon characters which have not often been staged in British literature, such as an “untouchable” who was forced out of the country or a man who was drawn to sell a kidney to pay for student visa. The latter, a collection of short stories, revives the ghost trope, suggesting that the often undocumented workers have spectral lives. I wish to reflect upon the representation of subaltern figures in literature and more particularly on the spectral metaphor. According to Maria del Pilar Blanco and Esther Peeren, the concept of “ghost” may refer to social outcasts, “impotent and ineffectual victims rather than powerful aggressors” (2010, x). Is the figure of the ghost in literature still empowering? Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s discussion on “marked” bodies (Strange Encounters, 46) and other theoretical works, this article discusses what literature performs on the lives, voices and bodies of marginalised figures and ponders over the ethics of writing and reading works focusing on such themes.
format	article
author	Jaine Chemmachery
author_facet	Jaine Chemmachery
author_sort	Jaine Chemmachery
title	‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)
title_short	‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)
title_full	‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)
title_fullStr	‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)
title_full_unstemmed	‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)
title_sort	‘some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: subaltern figures and spectral metaphors in sunjeev sahota, the year of the runaways (2015), and deepak unnikrishnan’s temporary people (2017)
publisher	Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/6731ac71a05a4028815927f84a039ba9
work_keys_str_mv	AT jainechemmachery somebelievethemenbecomeghostshauntingthefacadestheyhelpedbuildingsubalternfiguresandspectralmetaphorsinsunjeevsahotatheyearoftherunaways2015anddeepakunnikrishnanstemporarypeople2017
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‘Some believe the men become ghosts, haunting the facades they helped building’: Subaltern Figures and Spectral Metaphors in Sunjeev Sahota, The Year of the Runaways (2015), and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017)

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