Migration, alienation or hybridity, The comparative study of The Enigma of the Return and The Gloppy Land

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

1 Associate Professor of French Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti University

2 PhD student in French Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti

Abstract

Thanks to migration and mass media such as television and cyberspace, we live in a transnational and transcultural world where cultural and identity signifiers constantly come into contact and are interwoven. The offshoot is the formation of a new culture and identity no longer rooted in one land and nation; rather they have been redefined and hybridized so that their survival and growth are secured in the contemporary world. Influenced by this transnational world, the literature narrates the life story of deterritorialized people who have migrated in search of a better life. Dany Laferrière’s The Enigma of the Return (2009) and Keivan Arzaghi’s The Gloppy Land (2011) richly illustrate the outcomes of accepting and rejecting this hybridity. Drawing on Homi Baba's postcolonial theory and Jacques Lacan's theory of alienation, we undertake a comparative study of these two novels. The analysis exhibits how migrants such as Dany and Arash's father struggle and experience alienation due to their reluctance to accept the laws governing the host country and its cultural signifiers, in addition to the rejection of the existing reality or grief over separation from their homeland. On the other hand, characters like Dany and Sanam embrace hybridity and consider migration a means for attaining success [in their life]. Thus, Dany realizes his driving ambition to be a famous writer, whereby he not only becomes a member of the host country, but also uses it to fight and return to his native land.

Keywords

References

Arzaghi, Keivan. The Gloppy Land. Tehran: Ofog, 2011.
Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large, Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. translated by François Bouillot. Paris: Payot & Rivage, 2005. 
Assoun, Paul-Laurent. Lacan. Paris: PUF, 2003.
Bhabha, Homi k. The location of culture. Paris: Payot & Rivages, 2007.
Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966.
Laferrière, Dany. The Enigma of the Return. Paris: Grasset & Fasquelle, 2009.
Moura, Jean-Marc. Francophone literatures and postcolonial theory. Paris: Quadrige/PUF, 2007.
Chatenay, Gilles. "Separation and alienation, the dialectic of the subject and the Other". Presentation at the theoretical seminar of the Clinical Section of Nantes. Reading of the chapters XVIII, XIX et XX de J. Lacan, The Seminar, book XI, text established by Jacques-Alain Miller in 2018-2019. (2019-June): 1-8. URL: http://www.sectioncliniquenantes.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/19-06-Chatenay-SCN-Livre-XI-chap-181920-SITE.pdf. [4.04.2021].
Collignon, Béatrice. "A note on the foundations of postcolonial studies". EchoGéo, (mis en ligne le 06 mars 2008). (2007-June-August): 1-9. URL: (http://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/2089. [27.11.2018].
Courcy, Nathalie. « La culture haïtienne au Québec : interaction ou confrontation ? Étude de la réception critique de l'oeuvre de Dany Laferrière ». Culture française d’Amérique. (Département des Littératures, Université Laval). (2002): 53-70. URL: (http://retro.erudit.org/livre/CEFAN/2002-1/000595co.pdf. [2.8.2021].
De Luca, Ylenia. "La typographie américaine de Dany Laferrière". Altre Modernità (Autres Modernités), n˚ 20(2018): 195-205. URL: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/10840/10197. [2.8.2021].
Lacan, Jacques. "The individual myth of the neurotic or poetry and truth in neurosis". Ornicar ?, (transcribed by J. A. Miller), n° 17-18. Paris: Seuil, 1978: 290-307.
Lacan, Jacques. "The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis". Afterword published following the transcription by J.A. Miller of seminar in 1964, in 2018-2019. Paris: Seuil. 1973: 251-254.
Poli, Maria Cristina. "The concept of alienation in psychoanalysis". Figures de la psychanalyse, vol 2. n˚ 12(2005): 45-68. URL: https://www.cairn.info/revue-figures-de-la-psy-2005-2-page-45.htm. [4.04.2021].
Simon, Sherry. "Transnational culture in question: aims of the translation at Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak". Études française, vol 31. n˚ 3(1995- winter): 43-57. URL: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/etudfr/1995-v31-n3-etudfr1080/035998ar.pdf. [14.01.2019].
Sauvaire, Marion. " Hybridity and cultural diversity of the subject: relevant notions to form reading subjects?". Litter@ Incognita: "The hybrid in the test of the crossed glances". n° 4(2012): [online]. URL: https://blogs.univ-tlse2.fr/littera-incognita-2/2016/02/16/numero-4-2011-article-3-ms/. [29.11.2018].
Critical Language and Literary studies
Volume 18, Issue 27
February 2022
Pages 79-100

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics