The Refugee’s Body of Knowledge: Storytelling and Silence in the work of Francisco-Fernando Granados
This paper begins by considering the negative implications of recent amendments to the refugee certification process in Canada. It foregrounds the waning impor- tance of narrative in that process and then asks what is lost when refugees are denied the opportunity to tell their stories in meaningful and politically expedient forums. The second half of the article attempts to answer that question by draw- ing on the scholarship and artistic practice of Francisco-Fernando Granados, a Guatemalan-Canadian performance artist and refugee whose work seeks to expand the kinds of stories refugees are invited to tell, whether in the courtroom, on the stage, or on the page.