Homelessness

Issue 9.4 Previous Issues

Imagining Homelessness: Ethnofiction in Marc Augé’s No Fixed Abode and Mahsuda Snaith’s How To Find Home

What place does literary fiction have in addressing homelessness? French anthropologist Marc Augé and British-Bangladeshi writer Mahsuda Snaith prompt this question through their respective texts No Fixed Abode (2011) and How to Find Home (2019). Augé’s novellais about a retired tax inspector called Henri Cariou who sleeps in his car on the streets of Paris. With some savings and intent on maintaining hygiene and respectability, Henri calls himself a “top-of-the-range”, “clean-cut” homeless person initially (Augé 14, 34), but is a “living corpse, waking mummy” (54) before long.

Issue 8.3 – Special Issue "Contemporary Representations of Homelessness" Previous Issues

Alluvium Editorial 8.3: Contemporary Representations of Homelessness

Julia Ditter, Liam Harrison and Martin Goodhead December 7, 2020 No Comments American literature British literature Homelessness Indian film precarity refugees

Special Issue: Contemporary Representations of Homelessness Editors: Julia Ditter, Liam Harrison and Martin Goodhead From theorizations of transcendent homelessness to contemporary narratives of displacement in the wake of war and…

Issue 8.3 – Special Issue "Contemporary Representations of Homelessness" Previous Issues

The Post-Millennial Rise of British Homelessness Literature

Joseph Anderton December 7, 2020 1 Comment British Homelessness poverty precarity voice

Approximately as many full-length novels and autobiographies written by British authors about or largely featuring homelessness were published in the last two decades as in the 50 years between 1950 and 2000. Homelessness seems to be growing in the public and cultural consciousness, and it remains a persistent and pressing issue.

Issue 8.3 – Special Issue "Contemporary Representations of Homelessness" Previous Issues

Homelessness, Borders, and the Displaced Youth: Understanding Young Refugees through Fictional Narratives

Anindita Shome December 7, 2020 8 Comments Borders Homelessness refugee crisis youth refugees

By Anindita Shome Content warning: contains descriptions of graphic violence and sexual assault Fictional narratives can play a critical role when it comes to understanding…

Issue 8.3 – Special Issue "Contemporary Representations of Homelessness" Previous Issues

“The transient vigor of a man”: Home and Homelessness in Marilynne Robinson’s Home

Ben Screech December 7, 2020 No Comments Addiction family home Homelessness transcience

By Dr Ben Screech Give me a home where the Buffalo roam Where the Deer and the Antelope play; Where seldom is heard a discouraging…

Issue 8.3 – Special Issue "Contemporary Representations of Homelessness" Previous Issues

Where Childhood Ceases: Media Representations of the Homeless Street Children of Mumbai, India

Srishti December 7, 2020 1 Comment cinema Homelessness India NAMLE

Countless imaginaries within popular culture, across literature and film, capture childhood innocence and unbridled hope. Lacking any inhibitions or fear of judgement, and expressing themselves freely, children reflect a parallel dimension that has not yet been corrupted by the malign forces of the world. A child’s reality is essentially rooted in the support systems they have within their small circle of family and friends. The home, in this regard, is their anchor and the crux around which their identity and sense of self revolves. But what happens when this structure itself is uprooted and spun around on its head? This is a crucial question within the context of India, which has 18 million children that do not currently have a home and are often called ‘street children’.