Literature and Migration: The Re-presentations of Italy in Contemporary Romanian Prose

• Main Author: Ioana Pavel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca 2020-07-01
• Series: Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory
• Subjects: migration; psychological and sociological perspective; narrative device; dan lungu; liliana corobca
• Online Access: https://www.metacriticjournal.com/article/157/literature-and-migration-the-re-presentations-of-italy-in-contemporary-romanian-prose

Thematised through the mechanism of fictionalization, migration is one of the common fields in which the social impact upon literature is visible on multiple levels. Discussions in which migration occupies a central place cover different areas of literary interest. Such areas are the status and the thematic preferences of the migrant writer, the “migration” (i.e. the circuit) of the book in the international space, and to the thematic reflection upon cultural, identity related, or psychological consequences of the phenomenon. The present study emphasises migration as a literary theme and insists on the reverberations that take place at the level of the narrative discourse (psychological print, narrative devices, real space vs. constructed space, subjective stamps on the re-presentation of the literary space etc.), starting from two case studies: The Little Girl Who Played at Being God by Dan Lungu, respectively Kinderland by Liliana Corobca. Besides the obvious sociological component, the novels share the interest in the psychological effects that the migration phenomenon has over the children. Their particular “voice” represents, in fact, a narrative device that both authors use in order to create an effect of authenticity.