7. List, Assemblage, Interruption

Migrant Literature Against Story

Kirsten Silva Gruesz

Forum: Translation, Migration, Narrative

History and Theory 64, no. 3 (2025)

Building on the centrality of translation theory in literary studies, this essay makes the case for the utility of literature in understanding the experience of migration. Rather than assuming that this means narrative fiction or nonfiction, it explores arguments against narrative. Using frameworks developed by Maria Mäkelä, Hanna Meretoja, and Andrew Abbott, it argues that a story-critical, nonnarrative approach can better illuminate momentary experience and slow down the reader's rush to consume and oversimplify story features. Examples drawn from recent work by US Chicano poet-artist Juan Felipe Herrera illustrate some tactics that interrupt the flow of narrative, including the list, the assemblage, and the concrete space of the page.

Juan Felipe Herrera, photo courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation