Cultural Studies paper by Dömötör, Teodóra
The Trauma of Expatriation in Márai and Hemingway
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper seeks to offer an understanding of the controversial narrative representation of expatriation in the works of Sándor Márai and Ernest Hemingway. Although there is no evidence yet that two authors ever met in person, their portrayal of living abroad for an extended period of time is surprisingly similar, as is the way they conducted and ended their lives. Sharpening the focus on transnationality by juxtaposing Márai’s American and European experiences with those of Hemingway, I shall investigate in depth Amerika délibáb (Márai) along with In Our Time (Hemingway) to explore their shared interest in the traumatic aspects of identity construction abroad and whether minorities could ever be treated as integral and representative parts of a foreign society. The current study (which will appear in my upcoming book) delves into the expansive ways literature by immigrants negotiates diasporic spaces to create “imagined communities” where estrangement and engagement coexist. The works of the two main authors of my research mirror the misfortunes of their native societies in the twentieth century, hence their own expatriation. Interestingly, however, both authors also highlight their restlessness in their new “homes”. Hemingway (who moved from America to France and back) and Márai (who moved from Hungary to Italy and then America) depict living uncomfortably in a space between two worlds, one perhaps dead and the other struggling to be born. Such themes as ambiguity, assimilation, sentimentality, homesickness, and divided loyalties appear in the texts under scrutiny. The complex way identity is negotiated by immigrants writing about their home abroad experience plays a central role in my study, as do tensions concerning language and belongingness in the struggle for home. The main methodologies to be utilized include psychoanalysis, gender studies, and social history.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Teodora Domotor received her Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Surrey, UK. She currently works as an Assistant Professor at Károli Gáspár University in Budapest, Hungary. Her primary research goals are directed towards the study of twentieth-century transnational American literature with a strong emphasis on the narrative representation of national and gender identity. At present she investigates the portrayal of immigrant men’s infantilization and symbolic castration in the works of modernist American and Hungarian-American emigré writers. She is committed to interdisciplinary research: gender studies, psychoanalysis, and social history form the basis of her arguments. Her articles, chapters, and book reviews have appeared (or are forthcoming) in American and European publications.