Oral Collage: A Study of the Storyteller-Migrant in Ali Smith's <em>Seasonal Quartet</em>

Abstract

In this article, I will explore how Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet takes the form of an oral collage, a malleable, shape-shifting structure, to narrate the multi-layered affiliations of migratory experience. I will analyse Smith’s creation of oral collage using an interdisciplinary network spanning the disciplines of the visual arts, literary criticism, and migration studies. My examination of the relationship between Smith’s oral collage and the role of the storyteller-migrant will be informed by Yuval Etgar’s concept of collage as a mobile form which shifts attention to the margins or edges, creating ‘sites of disruption’ where ‘the unexpected, unscripted, or that was not meant to be included appear’. I will discuss how Smith’s representation of the migrant’s ‘simultaneity of connection,’ a criss-crossing of bloodline, geography, time, and memory, forms the foundation of her oral collage (Levitt and Glick Schiller). Further, I will examine how Smith’s oral collage contributes to the creation of a ’dissident counterpublic’ sphere through its foregrounding of the figure of the storyteller-migrant (Schrag). Finally, I will discuss the significance of Smith’s quartet for writing about migration, identity and belonging in the 21st century.