Migration and Labour Working Group – Roundtable 2: ‘Autobiography’

The autobiographical mode is one of the forms privileged by narratives focusing on labour and migration. This is due to the fact that a ‘testimonial’ aspect is often embedded in these narratives, whose audiences usually expect to be presented with the – more or less ordinary – true stories of those who have experienced migration, labour or migrant labour first-hand. Moreover, these narratives are also a means of coming to terms with traumatic experiences. The case of autobiographical proxy-narrations further complicates the picture. This panel aims to investigate the status and challenges of autobiography in relation to migration and labour in light of these questions, but also by reflecting on the position that migration occupies in labour narratives and, conversely, on the presence of labour in narratives dealing primarily with migration.

Some of the questions we aim to explore in ‘AUTOBIOGRAPHY’ include, but are not limited to:

• truth-telling and testimony
• I- vs We-narratives of labour and migration
• paratexts
• readership of labour and migration narratives