ABSTRACT
Literary representations of refugees are often involved in constructing and producing refugees as humanitarian subjects deserving of moral compassion and as members of an abstract universal humanity. This chapter identifies and analyzes humanitarian storytelling as a persistent script in the representation of refugees, arguing that although narratives that rely on such scripts perform important work, they also constrict our political imagination. It explores alternatives to the humanitarian template by considering refugee narratives involving frameworks of implication, beneficiary status, and ungratefulness, which go beyond inspiring compassion and highlight larger structures that lead to inequality and injustice as well as broader scales of interconnectedness and responsibility.
