Literature in spite of all: on memory and exile in the works of André Aciman

• Autor(a) principal: Walter Ferreira Coelho Neto
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFMG
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/38638
• topic: Nostalgia; Identity; Memory; Desire; Loss; André Aciman; Diaspora; Jewish diaspora; Aciman, André. – Crítica e interpretação; Ficção americana – História e crítica; Memória na literatura; Diáspora na literatura; Exilados na literatura; Literatura – Autores exilados; Identidade (Psicologia) na literatura

The present research proposes a reading of the works of the Egyptian-born, America-based writer, André Aciman, through the lenses of nostalgia and memory theories applied in diasporic literature studies. In his novels, Aciman, who identifies himself as an Exile, is constantly writing about a past that is long gone but still directly affects the very notion of “self” of the author, as we read in his memoir Out of Egypt, or of his characters, as seen in his novels Call Me by Your Name, Harvard Square, Enigma Variations, and Eight White Nights. It is the main goal of this research to understand how Aciman’s past as an exiled person influences his body of work and how the author proposes an individual-centered exile literature, rather than a general approach, by focusing on issues such as identity, memory, desire, and loss.