În cǎutarea unui oraș: Timișoara din memorie
Grațiela Benga
Descriere autor:
Romanian Academy, Timișoara Branch
E-mail:
E-mail personal autor:
gratielabenga@yahoo.com
10
Rubrica:
Studii literare
In Search of a City: Timișoara in Memories
Abstract: The article aims at highlighting the representations which have encompassed Timișoara in the autobiographical literature (memoirs, diaries, correspondence), relying on the application of instruments provided by geocriticism, literary and cultural studies. Identifying the preservation of a reality – in this case, a city – in different types of memory (individual, social, and cultural memory) is followed by an analysis of its various portrayals housed by the autobiographical discourse. Due to its sheer history and multicultural inheritance, the city has gained a privileged place in memories and showed unlikely, paradoxical juxtapositions that are typical not only for the Central European geography (a reservoir of utopias), but also for a specific culture, rooted in communication, influence, and transfer. Thus, mapping Timișoara through memories brings out extensive depictions and layers of meanings, revealing stashed or prominent connections to Europe.
Keywords: remembrance, transfer, multifocalization, identity, multiculturalism, hybridization, Central Europe
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