Exiled Writer Research Articles

Presence – Donation – Event

The Helikon Publishing House has published (2006–2018) Sándor Márai’s (1900–1989) diaries in eighteen volumes of eight thousand pages under the title The Complete Diary. After Márai left the country for good in 1948 and went into exile, the communist regime eliminated him from the history of Hungarian literature, and generations grew up without reading his books or hearing about him in their literary studies. The diary is a testament to the existential vulnerability of the writer in exile. This major piece of work has four layers: the first is made up of notes on regular readings, the second is about recent Hungarian history, the third is personal memory, and the fourth is the material for the absorption of the host country’s culture. The Complete Diary changes our view of Márai, whose vision of Hungarian history is disturbing. He sees Hungary as a failed attempt to create a modern bourgeois nation. What is unique about Márai’s diary is the way it fuses memories of the personal past with reflections on the present. The recording of daily events goes beyond the genre of the diary: on the one hand towards the essay, on the other towards the novel.

Repatriation via Saigon

Abstract The South Korean Vietnam War deployment (1965–73), typically understood as a mercenary expedition, was also an exercise in the management of refugees and other displaced populations. While the South Korean Army managed its own refugee villages in South Vietnam, the overseas dispatch of military labor also promised to ameliorate the problem of mass displacement at home, an ongoing legacy of the Korean War (1950–53). The northern exile writer Sŏnu Hwi (1922–1986) was a notable proponent of this vision of the war as a frontier, framing Vietnam as a surrogate for an inaccessible North Korea and an outlet for the social contradictions of Cold War developmentalism in South Korea. Focusing on the embedded novel Wave to the Mekong River (1966–67), this article argues that Sŏnu's expansionist fantasy deviated from official justifications of Vietnam as a war for development. At the same time, it suggests, Sŏnu's ideological equalization of exile and displacement also informed an emergent antiwar literature showing that the deployment aggravated, rather than resolved, the marginalization of mobilized youth.

‘상실’과 ‘저항’: 두브라프카 우그레시치의 포스트유고슬라비아 에세이즘과 그 함의

This research is devoted to the exploration of the implications of the Post-Yugoslav essayistic writings(Post-jugoslavenska esejistička proza) by Dubravka Ugrešić, one of the major contemporary female writers in Croatia through the analysis of their main themes and narrative features. It is the genre of essay that came to the fore in her literary works after she chose to live as an exiled writer. On the whole, it is the feeling of ‘loss’(gubitak) and the attitude of ‘resistance’(otpor) that underlie her essayistic writings, which are subsequently classified into five groups from the thematic points of view as follows. The first one is related to the nostalgic feeling of loss from the disappearance of Yugoslavia and includes those essays that criticize the confiscation and manipulation of the historical memories of ex-Yugoslavia in the new nation states that came to being after the disintegration of SFRY and during the outbreak of the Yugoslav interethnic violences and civil wars. The second group comprises the essays that provide the microscopic observations on the current situations in the Western Balkans in the transitional post-communist period. The third group of essayistic writings addresses the mutual recognitions between the East and the West of Europe, and the changes in recent Europe, caused by refugees and labour migration. The fourth group of essays examines the current status of literature including those ones and their writers in the Western Balkans and emphasizes the necessity of the proper consideration of the transnational literature as an alternative to the conservative national literatures, which have relied on the exclusive nationalistic cultures and have contributed to the identity politics. The fifth group of essays in Ugrešić’s oeuvre is related with the feministic criticism of patriarchal culture and misogyny in the Western Balkans. Based on the frequently repeated narratological elements, the above-mentioned themes are expressed through the authorial colorful tones and writing styles from the writings in fragments and short manifestoes to the long sarcastic feminist critiques and serious political interpretations with the view of diagnosing the crises of humanness(humanitas) from the Western Balkan countries to the West European societies. Ugrešić’s essayism originated from her diverse existential experiences as an exiled writer, and therefore needs to be considered as the heterogeneous and multilayered discourses that lead the readers to the deep contemplation and seeking solutions to the frustrating circumstances after the collapse of the communist countries.

Andreï Makine – From Anonymity to Literary Fame

Andreï Makine – From Anonymity to Literary Fame. The aim of this article is to analyse the strategies that enabled Andreï Makine to go from being a penniless Russian immigrant living in a Parisian cemetery to becoming a celebrity in the French literary world. The first aspect to be considered is the use of pseudo-translation. Unlike another Russian writer in exile, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who always believed that his works would be read by his compatriots and have an impact on the Russian cultural space, Makine, who settled in France in 1987, decided to write in French, mainly for a French readership. However, his first two novels were rejected by the Parisian publishers who did not believe that a Russian could write so well in French, so Makine had to create fictitious translators in order to get his texts published. Another significant factor is the way in which he exploited his biographical aspects to create a personal mythology. The third, and perhaps most important, factor that has contributed to Makine’s consecration in the French cultural space is the way he describes his country of origin (he has been accused of creating an image of Russia that would be pleasing to Western eyes) and his host country, praising both the French language and, as the title of one of his books puts it, “this France that we forget to love". Keywords: pseudo-translation, hybrid identity, personal mythology, slavophilia, francité

Chalk and Cheese? A comparative study of Bessie Head (1937–1986) and Lewis Nkosi (1936–2010)

This article brings together two giants of Southern African literature and criticism for the purposes of comparison, particularly of their experience of the Drum and Golden City Post era, and the immediate aftermath. Bessie Head and Lewis Nkosi, both journalists, first crossed paths in the Johannesburg of what Nkosi called ‘The Fabulous Decade’ of the 1950s; both, in the early 1960s, went into exile – Nkosi to America to take up a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University; and Head to Serowe in Botswana to become a teacher. Both left, after having passports refused, on one-way exit permits which meant they couldn’t return, for the duration of apartheid rule at least. There were, of course, significant differences as well: though both had difficult childhoods, Head’s struggles as a disowned illegitimate foster child were harder than Nkosi’s who at least had some family to support him in his early years; Head’s battle with mental health was not shared by Nkosi, though her dependence on alcohol was. In terms of their long-term reputations, Head was the more acclaimed novelist, while Nkosi’s acclaim was for his critical writings. This article is a preliminary step towards comparatively discussing these two exiled writers whose paths crossed briefly in turbulent personal and political times in South Africa.

Meklējot piederību pēctrimdas laikā. Daži aspekti Indras Gubiņas un Gunara Janovska dzīvē un daiļradē

The present article aims to focus on a phenomenon that has received little attention in the context of not only the historical processes but also the Latvian literary process, literature as such, and creative personalities. The attention is centred on the period that was marked by substantial changes on both sides of the so-called Iron Curtain, which had created two separate closed spaces – that of Soviet Latvia and the various countries of residence of Latvian exiles. When Latvia regained its independent statehood, it changed the historical significance of the exile which included the idea of homecoming. For many years, living and working in a foreign country with their thoughts of lost Latvia, waiting for this significant event, the exiles were facing a choice – how and where to live, what was the justification of exile and life outside Latvia in the new situation. This new situation actualised the question of who were the Latvians outside Latvia in such circumstances, clearly understanding that they were no longer exiles. The metaphor of a gateway precisely expresses this feeling – should they remain standing at the gate (in exile) or enter the gate, that is, return to Latvia, the country that has changed, is undergoing change, and, in fact, is being recreated anew. The reality proved to be much more complicated, as nearly half a century had passed since the day when, at the end of WWII, such a great number of Latvians left their homeland. Based on archive studies, the article provides an insight into several aspects of life and creative activity of two exile writers – Indra Gubiņa (1927–2017) and Gunars Janovskis (1916–2000) – in the post-exile period, concentrating on the belonging, the feelings of being between Latvia and exile, and seeking the answers to the questions: what in their everyday life and creative activity was changed (if at all) by the closure of their exile, and if they managed to find in themselves the sense of belonging to the Latvian (cultural) space. The article not only uses the archive studies but also attempts to look for new opportunities for theoretical research; namely, it tries to carry over into the Latvian literature research the theoretical phenomenon of post-exile (Nachexil, Post-Exile) that has entered the German literary study (Bannach, Sarkowsky 2020), and provides a new potential in exile literature study, with the end of exile being the starting point, directly related to the restoration of Latvia’s independence.

Lost and Found Voices: Four Gay Male Writers in Exile by Luc Beaudoin (review)

Lost and Found Voices: Four Gay Male Writers in Exile by Luc Beaudoin (review)

SÜRGÜNDEN KENDİNİ GERÇEKLEŞTİRMEYE DOĞRU YOLCULUK: V. S. NAIPAUL’UN BÜYÜLÜ TOHUMLAR ROMANI ÜZERİNE BİR ÇALIŞMA

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul is one of the prominent self-imposed exile writers of Indian-Caribbean origin whose works, namely, novels, are based on real and well-known personalities, events, and facts that have connections with countries such as the Caribbean, India, Africa, and England. As an exiled writer, V.S. Naipaul has successfully found ways to articulate the issues that displaced people from the Third World have faced in a multicultural world. The protagonist, Willie Somerset Chandran, a displaced individual of Indian descent, attempts to overcome issues that he encountered during the exile period. Through the protagonist, the author demonstrates how individuals from the Third World experience homelessness and rootness conditions. It reveals that, in fact, this condition did not prevent them from continuing their path towards creativity, self-discovery, and self-actualization. The purpose of this research is to examine exile experiences, their consequences, and their effects on the self-actualization process of the exiled protagonist, Willie Chandran. It also aims to take a look at the process of becoming familiar with the potential creative talents of the hero. As a last remark, the paper intends to show how exile offers the chance to view and explore issues from different angles.

From Exile to a Global Citizen

In ancient Greek literature and Indian epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, exile or banishment is depicted as a punishment meted out for sins and crimes committed by humans, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Gradually, from individual/ group punishment, exile evolved into mass exodus resulting from war, conquests and other conflicts. All forms of exiles suffer from the pain and sorrow of leaving behind one’s homeland and belongings. Consequently, the literature produced by exiled poets and writers are filled with nostalgia and agonizing memories. However, over the years, other concerns related to their new lives gain prominence in their writings. This paper attempts to trace the journey of exiles from the past to the present and move towards the future in the writings of diasporic writers of different decades. This paper will focus on the works of V.S. Naipaul, Monica Ali, Zia Haider Rahman and Tarfia Faizullah to discover the newer trends emerging in their texts. V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas (1961) is the epitome of the diasporic writer’s attempt to understand his past in relation to his present. The ownership of a house in the new country is like staking a claim to belong to that country, and Mr. Biswas is desperate to do so. On the other hand, Monical Ali’s Brick Lane, published at the turn of the century, deals with a husband and wife negotiating the difficulties of belonging to a new society. Zia Haider Rahman and Tarfia Faizullah belong to the next group of diaspora writers, who are second generation immigrants growing up in a new land no longer ‘foreign’ to them. The protagonist of Rahman’s novel in The Light of What We Know (2014) successfully confronts problems and complications to ‘belong’ and ‘become’ a British citizen. Tarfia Faizullah, a young Bangladeshi-American poet, uses the history of the War of Independence of Bangladesh to align it with other similar universal discourse of genocide. It appears that figuratively, the exiled writer has now arrived at an acceptable point where s/he is flying out as a global citizen. This transformation of diasporic writers from the periphery to the centre as globally read figures has given rise to the concept of transnationalism. Spectrum, Volume 17, June 2022: 1-11

Letters for Ukraine. Textual and institutional forms of global responsibility

AbstractThis essay analyses the epistolary correspondence between six Ukrainian and German‐speaking authors published by WeiterSchreiben, a literary platform that belongs to the non‐profit organisation WIR MACHEN DAS and which seeks to promote the work of exiled writers from regions affected by war and other humanitarian crises in the German cultural field. The essay argues that the collaborative, self‐reflexive, and short form of the letters is particularly suitable to promote global responsibility and to quickly adapt to situations of political immediacy, thus accelerating literature's reaction capacity to ongoing conflicts such as the Russia‐Ukraine war. While tracing the connections between the genre and the human rights discourse and looking at the politics of address that create a bond of communion between the correspondents and have the potential to foster various kinds of political identification among readers, the essay also explores this literary initiative from a sociological perspective, challenging strict distinctions between textual and contextual dynamics. By drawing attention to the literary and political dimension of non‐profit organisations such as WIR MACHEN DAS, the essay demonstrates that literature constitutes an important tool in civil society, which helps create forms of transnational solidarity and shape collective debates around migration and social injustice that transcend the borders of states.

Kulturelles Erbe und Arbeit im Exil: Die deutschsprachige Literatur und der internationale Film (1933–1945)

Considering the devastating impact of Fascism and National Socialism on exiles and their literary heritage through the lens of adaptation history, this essay focuses on German-language literature in international cinema from 1933–45 and, by implication, on the role of refugees in major film industries abroad. When Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, most notable authors and filmmakers were forced to leave their homes in Germany and soon Austria. Many of them went to Paris and quite a few eventually made it to Hollywood. Several exile filmmakers sought to claim German-language literature for that ‘other Germany’ in foreign language films, but — especially after Hitler’s troops had invaded Poland — the literary canon of Germany and Austria was considered a liability by most international film producers. In desperate need of income, many exile authors actively pursued adaptations of their own works, but only rarely did their plans materialize, even for bestselling writers; Remarque, Seghers, and Werfel were among the lucky few. Max Ophuls’ effort to preserve at least a fragment of the German literary canon and ensure the survival of German culture abroad, by filming Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774), was an exception. For the most part neither international film studios nor audiences were interested in German literary culture during the Hitler era unless an exile writers’ works provided useful and entertaining insights into current challenges and/or had established a wide-ranging readership.

On Becoming “Princesse Bibesco”: The Intimacy of Modern Identity, Between the Self and the World

With the exception of Eva Behring who does not regard Martha Bibescu (1886–1973) as an “exile writer,” the few dictionaries and lexicons tackling Romanian exile writers only mention this turn-of-the-century Romanian-French woman writer’s name with modest assertiveness. This narrative of her censorship is probably the story of any exile woman writer, yet with a few entanglements created by her special social status (she became a “Princess” by marriage), by her outstanding political allegiances, and by her Bovaric spirit: malicious critics commented that her epitaph is a composition of four personae, none of them authentic. In this article, we present reasons and contexts of/for Martha Bibescu’s exclusion from the Romanian national literary canon. Moreover, assuming “a new geographical consciousness” that might bring to the fore the transnational routes of emancipation, our specific aim in the present article is to move away from the enduring narrative of censorship in Martha Bibescu’s case and to propose her as a candidate figure for a transnational literary canon, forging a specific, modern, intimate écriture. Our stance is that shaping a complex intimacy, in-between the ways of the Self and the ways of the world, represents these women writers’ major contribution to modernity and should be counted as one of the characteristics of modernism.

300 Latin American Poets of Resistance: Two Anthologies, One Unique Work

300 Latin American Poets of ResistanceTwo Anthologies, One Unique Work Editorial note: The three books are available in digital versions at www.rocioduranbarba.com, along with the film, which is available by request, free of charge, for groups of more than ten persons. Translated by Daniel Simon Click for larger view View full resolution Since the Gutenberg revolution, the democratization of access to books has gradually widened the scope of representation in their pages. With that expansion, grassroots efforts have emphasized empowering those who champion human rights. Anthologies are collective works, culling the best literature, adding to the building blocks of knowledge. They empower readers to envision a new world, a better world. The work of Rocío Durán-Barba and other anthologist-activists represents the best of this tradition. "RESISTIR (Resist) will not be my most original work, but it will be the most beautiful of my stories," I wrote in the introduction to Resistir, antología de poesía latinoamericana 2020. Now, after the launch of the new anthology, Resistir 2022–2023,150 escritores más, with 150 additional writers, I can affirm it: Resistir is the most beautiful of my stories! This story, built within the framework of PEN International, involved PEN France, PEN Suisse Romand, and eighteen Latin American PEN centers: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuban Writers in Exile, Guadalajara, Chiapas, Quechua, and San Miguel de Allende. Resistir was born with the dream of creating a space destined to manifest the expression of Latin America's spirit, a dream to disseminate the region's contemporary literary creations in France and Europe, a dream to build a bridge of communication and collaboration between the above-named PEN centers. Presented within PEN France, this project was perceived as overly ambitious, impossible to carry out. In Latin America, however, it was greeted with euphoria and ultimately success, perhaps because of its coherence: directed to a set of Spanish-speaking countries that—thanks to a common linguistic heritage—are able to communicate. Sharing similar roots and a common past, the desire [End Page 47] was to draw closer to one another, guided by the historical motto "Resist!", which is interwoven in the soul of Latin American culture. An ancestral and contemporary motto, echoing distant and near, on earth and in the spiritual realm. The anthology also augured something else: without having planned it, it became a call to overcome the global pandemic, a period of unprecedented crisis. The 2020 Resistir anthology (with 150 writers, including fifteen from PEN France), presented through twenty-two videoconferences (2020-2021), sparked a wave of enthusiasm around Latin American cultural and historical unity and convergence. It was the sharing of poetry without borders. The rediscovery of our common universe. The reweaving of links to the same past. Bringing together writers of all nationalities . . . A film, intended to encapsulate the memory of the unforgettable moments and especially the important messages left during the videoconferences, was essential. The premiere of this film—held at the University of Westminster in London (April 2022)—resulted in the release of the trilingual Voices of the Film Resist in Spanish, French, English, a book that contains the interventions collected in the film weaving a journey through twelve Latin American countries, their poetry, their life, local characteristics, music . . . The 2023 Resistir anthology, which includes thirteen writers from PEN Suisse Romand, is an extension of the first anthology. It was planned not only to extend its echo but to include new voices—notably, those in Quechua and from Chiapas, who reinforce by their presence the voice of ancestral Latin American cultures. It was launched at the end of 2022 in a digital version and is being printed for release in Paris in June 2023. These two anthologies, now made up of three hundred writers, are a unique work. One voice. A sonorous voice. Impassioned. With a transcendent-moving accent. A voice turned sometimes toward the future, often toward the past, in order to question the myths, the truths and lies, the tragedies, the bloody pages of history. Translation from the French Rocío Durán-Barba Paris Rocío Durán...

The Ex-pats Go to War

The present research is devoted to the post-WWI social and cultural milieu that made possible the intellectual and artistic effervescence characterizing the literary production of the American ex-pat writers in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The research is structured in an Introduction, four chapters, and Conclusion. After a necessary general presentation, the researcher goes deeper into the analysis of the identity crisis experienced by several American writers in exile, whom Gertrude Stein, herself an ex-pat, called “the Lost Generation” – among them, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, and Samuel Putnam. Starting from the assumption that by discovering Europe, the American writers discovered themselves, the researcher chose Hemingway to represent the post-WWI generation of American ex-pats and followed the writer’s search for identity, seen as a process of singularization based on recognizing that we share a common origin or circumstances with another person or community. Ample space is devoted to Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, where a feeling of uselessness and nonsense accompanies the characters. Having (re)discovered their identity in Paris, many returned to their native America, rediscovering her as more disappointing than expected.

Exile between estrangement and second homeland: affective atmospheres and imaginary geographies in the literary texts by exiled Roberto Schopflocher

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the work of the exiled writer Roberto Schopflocher, who emigrated from Nazi Germany to Argentina with his family as a teenager. Schopflocher dedicated himself to writing literary texts in the last third of his life, an activity that he intensified after his retirement. He wrote his first texts in Spanish, then changed to his mother tongue. The experience of emigration, the arrival in the “new homeland” and the “integration” in it are very present motifs in his literary work. This article analyzes these facets, focusing both on the Jewish experience of migration and on the imaginary significance of the geographies of the “new homeland”.

Luigi Donato Ventura, a Trilingual Self-translator

Luigi Donato Ventura, a Trilingual Self-translator

The Lost Place of Childhood: Writer Indra Gubiņa’s Memories, Life and the Literary Geographical Aspect

Researching Latvian literature in exile is a relatively new phenomenon that emerged in Latvia at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. As the writers’ archives became accessible, new opportunities for research opened up. In this article,1 I look into the historical situation in the context of World War II, marking out potential directions of my research and a theoretical basis. Using the archives of the Latvian writer in exile, Indra Gubiņa, I focus on the city of her childhood, Jelgava, as a lost place that acquired a symbolic significance in author’s memories, the course of her life and literary geography. The article explores the nuances of Gubiņa’s double belonging, her connection to the place of her childhood and the Latvian language. The methodology used in my research marks out the potential and prospective approach to the creative oeuvre of Gubiņa from the theoretical point of view of lost place, the topography of childhood and literary geography. This kind of research on the life and works of a single writer serves as a possibility to widen the field of investigation in studying literature, taking into consideration a broader spatial context, and working with the new tools of research.

Literary Exile – Between Philosophy and Poetics

Abstract The article performs an analysis of the concept of exile as it was defined by major figures of Romanian literature. From the writing of a “faceless man” to a destroyer of time, the self-image of the exiled writer goes through a scenario of disorder, chaos and refinding of the origins.

German-Jewish Women Writers in Exile: Metaphors of Loss and Persecution in the Works of Margarete Kollisch, Ilse Blumenthal-Weiss, and Vera Lachmann

German-Jewish Women Writers in Exile: Metaphors of Loss and Persecution in the Works of Margarete Kollisch, Ilse Blumenthal-Weiss, and Vera Lachmann

European Writers in Exile

European Writers in Exile