Abstract

This contribution considers the concept of ‘hope’, using it as a lens to scrutinize migratory experiences as described in two contemporary novels. Both texts open a fictional sphere that investigates worldly social and political issues, while also critically reflecting on the representational regime. The novels consider migratory experiences and, albeit differently, expand on hopeful perspectives for the future. While investigating literary fiction, this article also establishes a hermeneutic dialogue with Ernst Bloch’s thinking of hope and utopia as done in The Principle of Hope (written in the 1930s and published in 1954–59). The main claim of this contribution is that the coalescence of literature and philosophy manifests a specific type of social knowledge on migratory experiences. Literary research – as a specific form of research in the humanities – could have a more central role in migration studies.