Global Journeys.The Literary Representation of the Migrant Drama

In the 21st century, the word migration is increasingly used everywhere on the planet, often with dramatic connotations. How does literature play its role in the restitution of this major fact of our time? Recent writings such as: Non dirmi che hai paura by Giuseppe Catozzella, Nel mare ci sono i coccodrilli by Fabio Geda, Cannibales by Mahi Bine, Mbëkë mi by Abasse Ndione, Mur Méditerranée de Louis-Philippe Dalembert et Exit West by Mohsin Hamid answer this question and propose a new narrative and aesthetic mode of representation of reality. If our gaze focuses on the literary representation of the migration journey, it also embraces a curiosity for contemporary arts and cinema. In particular, two Italian authors are important in the formulation of our literary proposal even if their writings do not come from literature stricto sensu. One is the journalist Alessandro Leogrande, the first one to question the issue of shipwrecks; the second one is the medical examiner Cristina Cattaneo whose approach restores the identity of those migrants who died at sea. These are literary texts at the crossroads of several genres, perspectives and approaches whose entanglement allows us to propose a new reading of migration, and especially about literature. Geocriticism provides us clear answers to this unprecedented challenge and helps us to deconstruct the stereotypes prevailing on this subject. Its strong ability lies in the way it studies, analyzes and interprets the spatial referent in the literary work. The analysis goes through anthropology, sociology, geography and also law, relying in particular on the work of Michel Agier, its contributions allows us to conceive migration from a larger, cosmopolite, perspective.