Pulling threads: Intimate systematicity in The Politics of Exile

Abstract

The achievements of Elizabeth Dauphinee’s (2013) The Politics of Exile are highlighted by means of two juxtapositions. First, Dauphinee’s book invites a contrast to novels because it takes the form of a story. Specifically, Dauphinee’s portrait of the vilified ‘Serbs’ is compared with how the Taliban are treated in Khalid Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil. Second, The Politics of Exile is examined as it emerges from Dauphinee’s efforts to overcome the limits of her more academic work. The advantages of Dauphinee’s approach relative to our standard research are presented along five dimensions: the responsibility of closure, the purpose of narration, the transparency of the message, how the work is shown, and the role of generosity. This article critiques Dauphinee’s silence on the purpose of travel. It closes by suggesting what social theory can glean from The Politics of Exile. Social theorists can learn how to theorize more systematically, to weigh the relationship between the form and content in writing more judiciously, and to probe the deeper purposes of our intellectual life-work more fully.