An article that refuses to write itself

Abstract

The essay discusses the failure of the author to theorise refusal in relation to the politics of migration. As I try to understand why theorising refusal failed, I am reminded of the all-too-familiar trope of ethnography: the romanticisation of the resistant subject. Taking Tina Campt’s definition of refusal as a starting point, I proceed with autoethnographic critique. I emphasise the stakes of the refusal to accept the terms of the system that “renders you illegible”, (Campt 2019, 83) while arguing against the instrumentalisation of detention experiences.