“Migration Is Not a Crime”: Migrant Justice and the Creative Uses of Paddington Bear

Abstract

Created in 1957, the well-known English children’s book character Paddington Bear is the product of a dizzying number of displacements. Author Michael Bond (1926–2017) was inspired to make Paddington an undocumented migrant by World War II and Cold War mass evacuations in Europe, but he transposed Paddington’s origins to the troped space of “Darkest Africa” only to relocate them to “Darkest Peru.” Fleeing earthquake for England, Bond’s ursine protagonist assumes the name of the London train station where he is “found.” The story’s literary and film critics have challenged its elevation to universality, arguing that it extends colonial discourse and idealizes Paddington as a nonthreatening, assimilated migrant. This article complicates those claims by tracing the character’s emergence as an icon of migrant justice movements in the United Kingdom and Europe, turning to object relations psychoanalysis to examine Paddington’s complex affective pull. Drawing on archival work in Bond’s papers and interviews with his contacts, including migrant justice activists, I contend that although Paddington’s literary construction reflects imperial imaginaries, his reception also attests to the transformative, solidaristic, and creative uses of cultural objects.

创作于1957年的英国著名儿童读物《帕丁顿熊》, 源于数量惊人的移民潮。受二战和冷战期间欧洲大规模撤离的启发, 作家迈克尔·邦德（1926-2017）把帕丁顿描绘成无证移民, 但原籍变为“最黑暗非洲”的比喻空间, 再将其重新安置到“最黑暗秘鲁”。邦德的熊主人公为了躲避地震而逃到英格兰, 主人公的名字就来自于他被“发现”的伦敦火车站名。文学评论和电影评论对故事的普遍性提出了挑战, 认为它延续了殖民论调, 将帕丁顿理想化为不具威胁的、被同化的移民。本文追踪了帕丁顿如何成为英国和欧洲移民正义运动的象征, 并将这些主张进行复杂化, 通过客体关系精神分析探讨了帕丁顿复杂情感的吸引力。根据邦德的文献档案和采访有关人员（包括移民司法活动家）, 我认为, 尽管帕丁顿的文学写作反映了帝国假想, 而我们对帕丁顿的接受, 也证明了对文化物品的使用具有改革性、团结性和创造性。

Creado en 1957, el Oso Paddington, bien conocido personaje del libro infantil inglés, es producto de un vertiginoso número de desplazamientos humanos. Para representar con Paddington a un inmigrante indocumentado de las evacuaciones masivas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y de la Guerra Fría en Europa, su autor, Michael Bond (1926-2017), estuvo bien inspirado, pero transpuso los orígenes de Paddington al espacio tropical del “África más oscura”, solo para relocalizarlos en “el Perú más oscuro”. Huyéndole al terremoto hacia Inglaterra, el protagonista ursino de Bond asume el nombre de la estación del tren en Londres donde él es “encontrado”. Los críticos literarios y de cine de esta historia han retado su promoción a la universalidad, arguyendo que así se extiende el discurso colonial y se idealiza a Paddington como un migrante inofensivo y asimilado. Este artículo complica esas afirmaciones al rastrear la aparición del personaje como icono de los movimientos por la justicia migratoria en el Reino Unido y Europa, recurriendo al psicoanálisis de las relaciones de objeto para examinar la compleja atracción afectiva de Paddington. Con base en trabajo de archivo en los escritos de Bond y en entrevistas con sus contactos, incluso con activistas de la justicia migratoria, sostengo que, aunque la construcción literaria de Paddington refleja los imaginarios imperiales, su recepción también da fe de los usos transformadores, solidarios y creativos de los objetos culturales.

Key Words:

• affect
• geographies of migration
• migrant justice
• object relations psychoanalysis
• Paddington Bear

关键词:

• 情感
• 移民地理
• 移民公正
• 客体关系
• 心理分析
• 帕丁顿熊。

Palabras clave:

• afecto
• geografías de la migración
• justicia migratoria
• Oso Paddington
• psicoanálisis de las relaciones de objeto

Acknowledgments

This article is a better one because of the efforts and insights of Stuart Aitken, Isabel Balseiro, Jennifer Cassidento, Lara Deeb, Lia Frederiksen, Lily Geismer, Dina Georgis, Jessica Kizer, Youna Kwak, Alison Mountz, Joanne Nucho, Stephanie Rutherford, Christy Spackman, Kendra Strauss, two anonymous reviewers, and audiences at San Diego State University, Claremont Graduate University, Harvey Mudd College, and the 2019 annual meetings of the American Association of Geographers and the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People. All limitations remain my own. Special thanks to Jane Parr and Laura Russo at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, and to Karen Jankel, Esmé Madill, Beverley Naidoo, Simon Parker, and Clare Sambrook for their time and generosity.

Notes

1 Although I completed a research ethics protocol prior to conducting interviews, the Claremont Graduate University Institutional Review Board determined that the project was exempt from ethics clearance because all interview subjects are already in the public record.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David K. Seitz

DAVID K. SEITZ is Assistant Professor of Cultural Geography in the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts at Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711. E-mail: [email protected]. His research investigates the cultural, political, and affective dimensions of geographical processes including urban gentrification, immigration and asylum, and queer community formation.