Autorentext

Kimberley Kinder is associate professor of urban and regional planning at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. She is author of several books, including The Radical Bookstore: Counterspace for Social Movements (Minnesota, 2021).

Klappentext

Mapping the transformative personal journeys of the displaced

The travel writing genre has long been associated with a certain kind of privileged and autonomous journey, encouraged by society and geared toward individual growth. Presenting an important counterpoint to this tradition, Invisible Exile considers a diverse set of narratives that explore travel undertaken as a result of displacement. In this creative work of cultural geography, Kimberley Kinder sheds light on the transformative accounts of those who must navigate across and within spatial boundaries due to marginalization and violence.

Unfolding as an extended trip, with each chapter marking out the next phase of one imaginatively constructed itinerary, Invisible Exile analyzes forty works in which the authors grapple with themes of loss and alienation. Kinder emphasizes the aspect of travel writing that posits spatial movement as a means of reinventing oneself, showcasing the personal insight and renewal these travelers find on their paths into, through, and partially out of exile.

By foregrounding the experiences of forced and reluctant migrants and refugees, Invisible Exile poses a critical challenge to the existing genre of travel literature, expanding its scope. Examining a vast range of twenty-first-century writings, Kinder crafts a moving, episodic journey that carries readers through displacement, transformation, and redemption.

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Inhalt

Contents

Introduction

1. The Foundations of Belonging: Plato’s Cave

2. The Power of Imagination: Girl Planet

3. The Process of Unbecoming: The Bohemian Coast

4. The Fateful Moment of Exile: The Void

5. The Swamp of Harsh Liminality: Bizarro World

6. The Project of Strategic Assimilation: Basic Training

7. The Healing Potential of Co-narration: Footsteps

8. The Provisional End of Exile: Sorrowjoy

   Conclusion

   Acknowledgments

   Appendix: Annotated Reading List

   Notes

   Bibliography

   Index