Memory and migration in Behold the Dreamers
This paperpresentsafirst approach toBehold the Dreamers, written bytheCameroonian Imbolo Mbue and published in 2016. The novel revolves around a young couple who emigrates to The United States motivated by an only dream: the desire for a better life. We will explore the text, in broad terms, from a...
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| Formato: | Artículo revista |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
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Departamento de Letras - Facultad de Humanidade
2022
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| Acceso en línea: | https://revele.uncoma.edu.ar/index.php/letras/article/view/4418 |
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| Sumario: | This paperpresentsafirst approach toBehold the Dreamers, written bytheCameroonian Imbolo Mbue and published in 2016. The novel revolves around a young couple who emigrates to The United States motivated by an only dream: the desire for a better life. We will explore the text, in broad terms, from a memory studies’ perspective to examine the representations of cultural memory in a migratory setting. The association between migration and memory is typically based on the yearning of the homeland and the sense of belonging, as well as thequest forpreserveone’s ownculture. Mbue’s novel, however, examines other ways of constructing memory and its counterpart,oblivion. The desire not to remember certain traditions, customs and experiences is a way of constructingmemory and it is associated, in the novel,with cultural assimilation. The analysis will also be focused on how the construction of femininity is closely related to the cultural memories of a society and to the transcultural memory of the migrant communities. The concepts ofcultural memoryby Jan Gassmann (2011) andtranscultural memoryby Astrid Erll (2011), among others, will be central for the purposes of this analysis. |
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