The Literary Economy of Migration in Postcolonial E-fraud Literature

The project examines internet fraud as a practice engaged in by individuals who are economically disadvantaged, are unable to find regular jobs, and are not able to migrate to developed countries where work might be found, often because of border restrictions that exclude them. It proposes to study how literary writers have been thinking about internet fraud, considering the fact that many of them, like e-fraudsters, are dependent on global circulation and a foreign readership of their works which cross borders without them necessarily needing to travel. This global intersection of migration and internet fraud is explored using a novel and two short stories from Africa: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance (2009), Petina Gappah’s ‘Our Man in Geneva Wins a Million Euros’ (2009) and Sefi Attah’s ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ (2010). These texts demonstrate how writers have been thinking about the economy of internet fraud, and how literary expressions of internet fraud constitute recent responses to the longstanding disenfranchisement of people from the Global South.

Faculty Supervisor:

Karen Schwartz;Sarah Brouillette

Student:

Partner:

University of Bristol

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

New and Digital Media; Education; Public Service, Policy, and Governance

University:

Carleton University

Program: