ABSTRACT
This chapter will turn toward voices that have been silenced and bodies that have been relegated to a state of near nonexistence. Unlike exile and diaspora studies, which focus on the hardship of assimilating into a new culture under excruciating circumstances, in refugee studies there occur countless muted bodies whose stories will never be narrated, or filmed, or stereotyped. The writer then brings to life imagined stories of those whose lives have ended on the borders, in transit, or upon arriving the host country. Originally published in 1963, Ghassan Kanafani’s novel Men in the Sun speaks truthfully and compellingly to our contemporary times, fitting neatly within this category. Similarly, a collection of short stories by the Iraqi novelist Hassan Blasim titled The Madman in the Square (2009) depicts a range of refugees in dire situations who are also the target of human trafficking in Serbia’s forests. Death has not only been a subject for fictional narratives in elucidating the refugee plights; nonfiction accounts are also on the rise. Pietro Bartolo’s Tears of Salt closely follows what the doctor sees on the shore of Lampedusa Island in Greece when thousands of refugees arrive there in critical condition.
