Transcultural and Imagological Figures: Disenchantment, Allophilia, and Belonging in Enrique Vila-Matas and Antonio Tabucchi

Keywords: imagology, literary transnationalism, allophilia, identity, alterity

Abstract

In some contemporary literary works, the presence of the ‘other’ and the representation of the ‘foreigner’ emphasize the problematic ways by which human beings relate to foreign people, revealing how those issues are pressing concerns in modern society.

This study questions how the shift in the way we perceive identity and belonging are depicted in Enrique Vila-Matas and Antonio Tabucchi’s fictions. Both authors aesthetically represent episodes and situations where characters’ relation to space is problematic, showing how the idea of belonging can be related not only to a specific country or a special space, but also to a desired space.

 Furthermore, based  on the pregnancy of the notion of ‘dwelling’ theorized by Emmanuel Levinas, this study  analyses how characters and narrators aesthetically represent the complexity of belonging and examines some of the transnational transfers and multicultural connexions displayed by both autors, mainly in Never Any End to Paris and It’s Getting Later All the Time.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Maria João Simões, Universidade de Coimbra
Maria João Simões is PhD Professor of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the Faculty of Humanities - Universidade of Coimbra (Portugal). Email: mjsimoes@fl.uc.pt Main subjects of research: Portuguese literature, comparative literatura, imagology, literary transnationalism and Realism. Membre of Executif Committee of the portuguese research eentre “Centro de Literatura Portuguesa”. Coordinator of the ongoing project “Literature, Imagology and Transnationalism: Representation of Migrations”. Coordinator of a project, completed in 2011, with results has published in the volume Imagotipos Literários: Processos de (Des)Configuração na Imagologia Literária (2011). Publications: “Imagology and Relational Complexity: The Group Stereotype” , in Coutinho, Eduardo F. (ed.) Beyond Binarisms. Discontinuities and Displacements: Studies in Comparative Literature, (2009). Editor of the volumes O Grotesco, 2005; O Fantástico, 2007; co-editor of the volume O Século do Romance. Realismo e Naturalismo na Ficção Oitocentista (2013). Maria João Simões: PhD Professor Dipartimento di Lingue, Culture Literatues in presso la Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia - Università di Coimbra. Email: mjsimoes@fl.uc.pt Soggetti principali di ricerca: letteratura portoghese, letteratura comparata, imagology, transnazionalismo letterario e realismo. Membre del Comitato Esecutivo dei portoghesi centro di ricerca "Centro de Literatura Portuguesa”. Coordinatore del progetto in corso “Literature, Imagology and Transnationalism: Representation of Migrations”. Coordinatore del progetto, completato nel 2011, con risultati pubblicati nel volume Imagotipos Literários: Processos de (Des)Configuração na Imagologia Literária (2011). Pubblicazioni: “Imagology and Relational Complexity: The Group Stereotype” , in Coutinho, Eduardo F. (ed.) Beyond Binarisms. Discontinuities and Displacements: Studies in Comparative Literature, (2009). Editor dei volumi: O Grotesco, 2005; O Fantástico, 2007. Co-editor of the volume O Século do Romance. Realismo e Naturalismo na Ficção Oitocentista (2013).

References

Abbrugiati, Perle, “Éloge d’Antonio Tabucchi”, Italies, N° spécial (2007), http://italies.revues.org/3700 online (last accessed 10/2/2017).

Beller, Manfred - Leerssen, Joep, Imagology. The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters, STUDIA IMAGOLOGICA 13, Amsterdam-New York, Rodopi, 2007.

Beller, Manfred, “Imagologia”, in Cometa, Michele (ccord.), Dizionario degli Studi Culturali, 2000, http://www.studiculturali.it/dizionario/pdf/imagologia.pdf web (last accessed 10/2/2017).

Cozarinski, Edgardo, Vodú Urbano, Madrid, Editorial Anagrama, 1985, http://docslide.us/documents/39745203-cozarinsky-edgardo-vudu-urbanopdf.html web (last accessed 28/7/2015).

Deidier, Roberto, “Antonio Tabucchi”, Enciclopedia Italiana, VI appendice, 2000, http://www.treccani.it/ web (last accessed 10/2/2017).

Jay, Paul, Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in Literary Studies, Ithaca, Cornell UP, 2010.

Ferraro, Bruno, “Antonio Tabucchi revisited: the specularity of fiction”, in Antonio Tabucchi: Geografia de um Escritor Inquieto / Antonio Tabucchi: Geography of a Restless Writer, Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – CAM/ACARTE, 2001.

Levinas, Emmanuel, Totality and Infinity: An essay on exteriority, Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic, 2011 (Orig. Totalité et Infini : Essai sue l’extériorité, Paris, Kluwer Academic, 1961).

Pageaux, Daniel-Henri, “De l'imagerie culturelle à l’maginaire”, Précis de Littérature Comparée, Dir. Pierre Brunel – Yves Chevrel, Paris, PUF, 1989: 133‑162.

Simões, Maria João, “Imagology and relational complexity: the group stereotype”, in Beyond Binarisms. Discontinuities and Displacements: Studies in Comparative Literature, Ed. Eduardo Coutinho, Rio de Janeiro, Aeroplano Editora, 2009: 81-90.

Simões, Maria João, “Introdução: Cruzamentos teóricos da Imagologia Literária: Imagotipos e Imaginário”, in Imagotipos Literários: Processos de (Des)Configuração na Imagologia Literária, Coord. Maria João Simões, Coimbra, Centro de Literatura Portuguesa, 2011: 9–53.

Schiller, Nina Glick, “Transnationality, Migrants and Cities. A Comparative Approach”, in Eds. Anna Amelina, Devrimsel D. Nergiz, Thomas Faist, Nina Glick Schiller, Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Research Methodologies for Cross-Border Studies, London, Routledge, 2012.

Tabucchi, Antonio, It’s getting later all the time: a novel in the form of letters, trad. Alastair McEwan, New York, New Direction Publishing Corporation, 2006 (orig. Si sta facendo sempre più tardi. Romanzo in forma di lettere, 2001).

Tabucchi, Antonio, “Portrait d’un écrivain en miroir”, Italies, N° special (2007), http://italies.revues.org/3736 online (last accessed 10/2/2017).

Tabucchi, Antonio, Viaggi e Altri Viaggi, Milano, Fratinelli, 2010.

Tabucchi, Antonio, Pereira Maintains, Edinbourg-London-New York, Canongate, 2011, (orig. Sostiene Pereira, 1994).

Vila-Matas, Enrique, Bartleby & Co, London, Vintage, 2005 (orig. Bartleby y Companhía, 2000).

Vila-Matas, Enrique, Dublinesque, London, Vintage, 2013 (orig. Dublinesca, 2012).

Vila-Matas, Enrique, Never Any End to Paris, London, Harvill Secker, 2014 (orig. París no se acaba nunca, 2003).

Vila-Matas, Enrique, “Viajar, derrumbarse del sueño (Antonio Tabucchi)”, in El País. Babelio. 5 de Febrero (2011) http://elpais.com/diario/2011/02/05/babelia/1296868389_850215.html web (last accessed 10-2-2017).

Published
2017-06-02
How to Cite
Simões, M. J. (2017). Transcultural and Imagological Figures: Disenchantment, Allophilia, and Belonging in Enrique Vila-Matas and Antonio Tabucchi. Between, 7(13). https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/2648