In the poem, composing a room where we can be together : A literary study in the bereavement of a mother tongue

The objective of this thesis is to examine how the bereavement of a mother tongue in various ways affects a person and how literature discusses this experience. How does literature reflect it and is it possible to identify any specific and recurring themes? Are there any similarities between the experience of migration and the experience of colonialism? What purpose does writing serve in this and how to describe the impact of language? Hopefully this thesis will contribute to a better understanding of the situation for newly arrived people and for persons living in Sweden with Swedish as a second language. The thesis has a postcolonial perspective as the focus is fiction dealing with a relocation from east to west. Earlier research and writings that has inspired is in particular the works by the two postcolonial theorists Franz Fanon and Sara Ahmed. The main source material for the study is literary works, e.g. the works of Jila Mossaed, Theodor Kallifatides, Athena Farrokhzad, Burcu Sahin and Yoko Tawada. The thesis is intentionally written in the form of an essay, suggesting the power of language and storytelling. The main objective of the thesis is to describe, rather than to arrive at a conclusion. One main focus is the author’s personal relation to the subject and to the Philippines and its colonial past. The literary works addressed in this study suggests that literature dealing with migration and language bereavement mainly focuses on a discussion about the relation between the native tongue and the new language, the relation between the metaphysical body and the new geographical location, about feelings of speechlessness and alienation that becomes physical. All these concurrent themes can be used as tools to define an experience that in many aspects is inconceivable. The thesis also identifies similarities between colonialism and migration, as both raise the question of inherit right to a place and a lifelong search for a place to call home. In this effort, writing is important and may function as an emancipatory lever to create new places