¿This book investigates the imaginative capacities of literature, art and culture as sites for reimagining human rights, addressing deep historical and structural forms of belonging and unbelonging; the rise of xenophobia, neoliberal governance, and securitization that result in the purposeful precaritization of marginalized populations; ecological damage that threatens us all, yet the burdens of which are distributed unequally; and the possibility of decolonial and posthuman approaches to rights discourses. The book starts from the premise that there are deep-seated limits to the political possibilities of state and individual sovereignty in terms of protecting human rights around the world. The essays explore how different forms, materials, perspectives, and aesthetics can help reveal the limits of normative human rights and contribute to the cultural production of new human rights imaginaries beyond the borders of state and self.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I Rescuers.- Chapter 2. Heroic and Empathic Rescuers in Foundational Migrant Melodrama.- Chapter 3. Rescuers as Saints and Martyrs in Contemporary Migrant Melodrama.- Part II. Mothers and Fathers.- Chapter 4. Madre Dolorosa: Casting Competitions in Mother Activism.- Chapter 5. Wounded Warriors: Corrective Castings in Male Activism.- Part III. Children and YouthChapter.- 6. Unaccompanied Migrant Children: Orphan-Martyrs in Motion.- Chapter 7. DREAMer Youth Artist-Activists: Queering Migrant Melodrama.- Chapter 8. Epilogue.