Companion Texts and Spaces of Encounter: Reading Experiences in Shazia Majid, Ivo de Figueiredo and Yohan Shanmugaratnam’s Life Writing

Analyzing reading experiences represented in transnational literature clarifies how the author’s story connects to a larger world literature. Building on feminist and postcolonial work of Sarah Ahmed, Elleke Boehmer, Rita Felski's study uses literature, I investigate signification representations three contemporary Norwegian works. These center thematically gendered racialized identity processes, as well politics history, aftermaths colonialism migration: Shazia Majid, Ut av skyggene. Den lange veien mot likestilling for innvandrerkvinnene [Out shadows. The long road equality immigrant women]; Ivo de Figueiredo’s A Stranger At My Table [En fremmed ved mitt bord. En familiehistorie] Yohan Shanmugaratnam’s Vi puster fortsatt [We are still breathing]. analysis intersectional aspects these works, explores their stories refer enter into various networks book communities: Feminist, imperialist, antiracist, Norwegian, English, American, Asian, African, 19th-century, colonial, black, white more. authors use family history tell story, leading further explorations gender, ethnicity, nationality, class religion form identities Norway.