City Research Online

Abstract

Both Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation and Edward Said's Out of Place are memoirs that recount a life of constant adjustments and re-orientations of the self, where the anchoring concept of ‘home’ cannot denote a centre upon which their multiple displacements can be tethered. There is no attempt here to imply both of these memoirs can seamlessly be read together in every sense, simply because both are émigré intellectuals; however, their shared trajectory of departures and arrivals crucially foregrounds space in their negotiation of the exilic experience. For both writers, inner dépaysement gives rise to a simultaneous coming to terms with the tensions of belonging that are already apparent within that origin so longed for. To compensate, Hoffman and Said designate language a power of emplacement, in that their shared refuge in it (both linguistic and musical) turns their displaced selves into articulated, and thus inhabited, ones. In configuring the different ‘belongings’ their selves undertake, the displacements and arrivals in Lost in Translation and Out of Place advocate a space for autobiography where plural identity is recognised as ontologically cohesive.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Life Writing. Sarah Jilani (2015) Writing Exile: Displacement and Arrival in Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation and Edward Said's Out of Place, Life Writing, 12:1, 59-73. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	displacement. memoir, Eva Hoffman, Edward Said
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Media, Culture & Creative Industries > English, Publishing & Creative Writing
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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