Introduction: Centers-Peripheries; Literary, Cinematic, and Artistic Spaces

The introduction articulates an understanding of modern Europe through a geocritical and comparative approach to the concepts of centers and peripheries, borders, thirdspace, transit places, exile, and diasporas. Instead of defining the continent as an irradiating center of cultural production, the theoretical model brings to the fore the impact that migrations, both internal and external, as well as exile and displacements, have on the literary and visual productions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In many cases, the recovery of silenced voices from oppressive political situations, and voices that have been marginalized due to migration, exile, and gender, illustrate the necessity of understanding works of art—literary, cinematic, and visual—as political expressions with the potentiality to alter power balances. By analyzing works of art, literature, and film with a framework based on concepts defined by theorists such as Étienne Balibar, Bertrand Westphal, Edward Soja, and others, the study aims to develop a more inclusive and complex history of personal, transnational, and ethical boundaries within Europe and in a global context.