Satura

2024-12-07T14:48:55+01:00

Table of Contents

Academic Research Section

2024-12-07T15:24:24+01:00

Non-fiction

“Turning to a color at a particularly fraught moment”—Configuring the Affect of Grief in Colour and Form(s) in Maggie Nelson’s Bluets

2024-05-31T16:10:20+02:00

Research text

Writing (a) Home in Times of Crisis: A Review of Scattered All Over the Earth (2018) by Yoko Tawada

2024-04-23T17:50:43+02:00

In this dystopian novel, Tawada explores the concept of homeness in the twenty-first century by imagining future in which Japan has sunk into the sea as a result of the climate crisis. The only people left with intimate knowledge and memories of Japan are emigrants who resided outside the island nation when it disappeared. Among this small, exiled community is a young woman named Hiruko. The heartwarming story follows Hiruko as she embarks on a quest to seek out others who speak her native language. During her travels she meets and befriends a diverse cast of characters who each become invested in her search for the cultural remnants of her home country, while gaining a deeper understanding of their own sense of self and home along the way. Through this polyphonous novel, Tawada asks herself, her characters, and her readers questions like: what happens to a person when they lose their home? How does one create a home in a foreign and unfamiliar place? Is a home necessarily a physical space or can one find an intellectual and emotional home in the experience of community? By highlighting each character’s relationship with the concept of ‘home’, this review will provide an insight into the ways in which we navigate our desire to feel like a body at home, with the realities of the contemporary age – including migration, climate change, globalisation, and transnationalism. Thus, it will highlight how Tawada creatively engages with discourses on the evolving definitions and formulations of home and kinship, while reflecting on her personal experience as a migrant author who, for the time being, has left her native country and found new versions of home.

Subverted and Internal: Portrayals of Home in Women’s Refugee Writings

2024-04-29T14:06:00+02:00

In the essay, I explore the gendered transformations of the concept of home within forced displacement as depicted in literary works by African refugee women. Drawing upon Salman Rushdie’s ideas on home from Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991, this analysis focuses on two narratives: Meron Hadero’s ‘A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times’ (2022) and Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s ‘New Lands, New Selves’ (2018). The essay delves into the fluidity and evolution of home as experienced by displaced women, considering home not solely as a physical location but as a construct shaped by memory, imagination, and narrative. Hadero’s text showcases Ethiopian women in New York City, subverting cultural expectations by establishing a culinary business that fosters economic independence and transcultural connections. Meanwhile, Tshuma’s story explores the internalization of home, highlighting the protagonist’s hybrid identity and resilience amid encounters with stereotypes and discrimination. Through these analyses, I unpack how these women redefine and internalize the notion of home amidst displacement, challenging Western stereotypes and emphasizing the need for complex narratives that honor the multiplicity of identities shaped by migration and resilience. The essay underscores the significance of subversion and internalization in redefining home within the context of forced displacement and transcultural experiences.

Challenging the Idea of Europe: Representations of Female Transnational Experiences in Chérissa Iradukunda's Broken Object

2024-05-27T09:57:36+02:00

Chérissa Iradukunda published her first book - Broken Object - in 2023, sharing her transnational story of resettlement from her home country of Burundi to the Netherlands. The story is presented through the life experiences of Mylene, the main character. Mylene is a teenage girl who goes through a so-long awaited journey with her father to reunite with the rest of her family. Unbeknownst to her, the resettlement process turns out to be very complex, and changes in her family dynamics complicate it even further. Considering these difficulties, the story portrays how an absence of a feeling of ‘homeness’ in the protagonist(s) results in a lack of safety and belonging to her new surroundings. The present analysis considers Broken Object as an alternative discourse to the traditional idea of Europe as superior and universal. Through the representations of 1) the broken and 2) the gazed female subjects, this intersectional analysis brings forth alternative transnational experiences, especially those written by Black women authors, for new modes of identity construction. The paper encompasses a close reading method with a thematic deductive analytic approach, following Olaf Zenker’s dimensions of identity. Although Iradukunda does not speak for a whole group or represent the majority, her unique story adds significant value as an alternative proposal of representations and experiences to those used to forge the idea of Europe.

#Bookstagram: Where Readers Connect, Discover, and Belong

2024-04-11T19:26:10+02:00

Research Text

About the Journal

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About the Journal

The Authors

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The authors introduce themselves

The Staff and Journal

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The staff and the journal are introduced

Frontmatter

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Frontmatter

Letter from the Editor

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Letter from the Editor

Creative Writing Section

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Fiction

within one's reach

2024-08-13T00:07:43+02:00

A poem about a childhood memory of home

I swallowed a hurricane/Home is where the heart is

2024-04-10T18:36:07+02:00

Fiction

Hair Legacy

2024-02-28T23:23:05+01:00

Poetry

Südstadt Haiku

2024-04-22T12:57:34+02:00

Poetry

Knock, knock!

2024-05-29T18:45:07+02:00

"Knock, knock!" is a short story that delves into the life of Violet Emaline, a young woman grappling with her painful past and strained family relationships. Haunted by memories of her abusive father and the emotional scars left by her mother, Vio isolates herself, unable to let anyone in. Her new apartment, with its broken mirror, symbolizes her fragmented identity. Despite her mother's attempts to connect, Vio remains distant, burdened by unspoken truths and a name that holds painful associations. A turning point comes when a gentle, familiar voice at her door offers a promise of safety and love, prompting Vio to take a tentative step towards healing and acceptance. Through vivid imagery and emotional depth, the story explores themes of trauma, resilience, and the quest for a true home.

Kintsugi forever

2024-05-29T23:27:43+02:00

Poetry

The Taste of Language and Home

2024-05-01T18:42:15+02:00

I feed on language. Early on, I grew fascinated with the different sensations words create, when they roll off my tongue or onto paper. I adored the diversity of effects I could achieve with every bite full of meaning. But it was not until later that I realized how different every language tastes. It was only logical that, after this discovery, I developed a new hunger. A hunger, somewhat less urgent than that for food, community, or intimacy, but present without pause.

Ode for Summer

2024-08-15T21:16:39+02:00

Ode for Summer

Something About the Light

2024-02-21T13:39:59+01:00

Creative writing and photography

Anamnesis

2024-08-08T16:03:39+02:00

Dredging the Thames

2024-05-23T16:36:56+02:00

Poetry

Redacted

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It is a story that depicts the nuanced relationship between immigrants and the notion of home.

brother, elsewhere

2024-06-05T12:48:45+02:00

Poetry

Quake

2024-05-20T22:00:42+02:00

This text provides a concise recount of my experience during the 2023 Turkey earthquake. From the initial tremors to the aftermath, it chronicles the challenges faced and emotions felt. Through everyday moments and unexpected disruptions, this narrative offers a glimpse into the reality of living through a natural disaster. This is a firsthand account of a real experience endured during the 2023 earthquake in Turkey.

Way Back

2024-05-09T14:55:52+02:00

Fiction

Our future has been taken away.

2024-05-22T17:27:59+02:00

Essay

haze

2024-04-11T19:23:37+02:00

Poetry

To The People I Haven't Met Yet

2024-05-31T17:14:51+02:00

A letter to people I haven't met yet, describing possible futures and outcomes

rot

2024-02-07T06:36:37+01:00

Poetry

If the swallows fly low they indicate rain

2024-06-21T10:36:49+02:00

Fiction

In retrospect there was little left and I could have noticed it sooner

2024-05-26T23:56:41+02:00

Fiction

Filename: Whereof one cannot speak, one must feel

2024-04-28T16:14:45+02:00

Fiction

the one who stayed

2024-05-29T19:45:08+02:00

Poetry

Acknowledgements

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Acknowledgements to partners and friends of Satura