ABSTRACT
Contemporary narratives of forced migration often follow their journey towards Europe, showing various ways in which the migrants cross borders, legally and illegally, with the aim of achieving security in Europe. This chapter addresses the issue by presenting a case study of the role and representation of borders, bordering and borderscapes in ‘Last Thoughts on the Medusa’ (2008), a short story telling of African migrants on their way to Europe by the black British/European writer Jamal Mahjoub (b. 1960). This story continues Mahjoub’s long-standing interest in Europe and its historical construction. His novels such as The Carrier (1998) and The Drift Latitudes (2006) explore Europe’s relations with its immigrant others in the historical and contemporary contexts of postcolonialism, cultural hybridity and transculturation (see Nyman, 2009a ; Nyman, 2013). As a part of this project, ‘Last Thoughts on the Medusa’ presents the perspective of the illegal immigrant seeking to cross into Europe from Africa, and thus invites a border reading.
