Self-exile imposes accountability to the present readership where exile does not

Evidence

It is important to recall here that Rushdie was not, until his recent and macabre sentencing by the Ayatollah Khomeini, an exile but a self-exile. Writers-in-exile often write primarily for readerships which are materially absenr from the immediate conditions of their production, present only in the country from which the writer has been forcibly exiled, hence all the more vividly and excruciatingly present in the writer’s imagination because their actuality is deeply intertwined with the existential suffering of exile and with the act of writing as such. The self-exile has no such irrevocable bond; he is free to choose the degree of elasticity of that bonding, and the material consequences of his migrancy necessarily bring him into a much more accountable relation with the readership which is materially present within the milieu of his productive work. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 512

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the distinction between exile and self-exile as materially different authorial positions with different readership accountabilities.
• XREF: Relates to the reader’s interest in whether identity positioning is a bounded choice — self-exile as chosen elasticity of national bonding resonates with Spivak’s own chosen/strategic identity stance. — connects to: Errantry, unlike exile, reinforces rather than erodes identity — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 158; Self-exiles answer to their local readership unlike forced exiles — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 222; Chosen self-exile and vagrancy, unlike principled exile, enable celebratory uprootedness — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 627 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-exiles answer to their local readership unlike forced exiles #corroborates (0.95) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 222
• Forced exiles write to an imagined home readership absent materially #expands (0.82) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 222
• Chosen self-exile and vagrancy, unlike principled exile, enable celebratory uprootedness #expands (0.80) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 627
• Exile can mean losing one’s homeland to change rather than longing to return #qualifies (0.75) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 688