Postmigration Aesthetics: Autofictional Metanarrative Agency in the Writing of Dijana Matković and the Visual Work of Anna Ehrenstein

The present text follows post-migrant aesthetics by utilizing the concept of “postmigration” and analyzing the autofictional, especially narrative agency, in the novel Why Don’t I Write (2021) by Dijana Matković and selected visual works by artist Anna Ehrenstein. By proposing the notion of “metanarrative overidentification” as a critical identification with externally imposed categories, the text shows how the authors, through a critique of the social construction of “authenticity” and thus of the production of social differences, articulate resistance to the hegemonic dichotomous idea of society, which makes some “belong” by virtue of place of birth (of parents), class, ethnicity, nationality, race, and gender, while others remain “aliens.”
Keywords: postmigration aesthetics, autofiction, narrative agency, metanarrative overidentification, Dijana Matković, Anna Ehrenstein