Revenir...

12.5 x 18.5 cm / 400 pages / January 2019

isbn: 978-2-35137-257-9

Edited by François Pernot and Eric Vial

In French only

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Migrants, their arrival and settlement, are the focus of social science and public policy, as well as literature and the arts, with the figure of the exile at the forefront. But return is less often considered, even though it is on everyone's mind, whether or not it becomes a reality. Whether the migrant left with the idea of never coming back or, on the contrary, with the hope of returning one day when the political, economic or social situation in the country of departure is better, or when the sentence of deportation or exile has been lifted, the question of “return” is rarely studied as such... Return can also be forced - expulsion - and thus experienced as a second migration, this one unwanted, a heartbreak and a plunge into an anxiety-provoking unknown. But the return can also be dreamt of, awaited as an idyllic future and, whether real or symbolic, proven or fantasized, it is sometimes staged as a political weapon, or even linked to revenge, or on the contrary, it can take place with as little publicity as possible, as in a desire to return to the “normality” of pre-exile days. History is rich in these moments of return, and the forms they take deserve to be questioned first and foremost, to build up a palette of cases, between facts and representations.