Detention Camps/ Centers as Haunted Spaces in Behrouz Bocchani’s No Friend But the Mountains

Abstract

This paper examines the political implications of the strategies of ‘hauntology’ committed against Asylum Seekers by Australian officers in Detention centers on Manus Islands in Behrouz Bocchani’s  No Friend But the Mountains result in dehumanization of asylum seekers. My argument is premised on the haunting strategies of Australian state that aim to traumatize the asylum seekers to the extent that they turn out to be unrecognizable bodies.  Drawing on Avery Gordon Theory of Hauntology, Kristeva’s concept of Abjection and Mary Ellen’s concept of Doppelganger, I will discuss the ways in which ‘horrific’ violence inflicted on Asylum seekers in detention centers not only erase their individuality but leave them as dirty and disgusted bodies. This study aims to highlight different aspects of “horror” and ‘abjection” articulated in the text through the vocabulary, incidents and landscape to present an alternative avenue of investigation of dehumanization in detention centers.