Revisiting childhood from a testimonial perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-9651.v0i10p294-315Keywords:
Cuba-Exile, Cuba-Testimony and memoirs, Carlos Eire, Mirta Ojito, Eduardo Machado, Michael DomitrovichAbstract
If the 90s were a remarkable period with respect to the issue of memoirs – and their repercussions on literary criticism – by Cuban writers who arrived in the United States during their childhood and youth, the 2000s confirmed those authors, bilingual and bicultural individuals, needed to evaluate their past memory and their American present. This is how they develop and come to a definition that comprehends their cultural dualities and pluralities in step with the times. By analyzing four works of this genre (Nieve en La Habana, Miami y mis mil muertes,Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home y El Mañana. Memorias de un éxodo cubano), the present paper demonstrates that the act of remembering their childhood implies its verbal reinvention. We also discuss how the language choice involves both the artistic identity and the need of participating in the literary mainstream.Downloads
References
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Eire, Carlos: Nieve en La Habana. Confesiones de un cubanito. Nueva York: Vintage Español, 2007.
Eire, Carlos: Miami y mis mil muertes. Confesiones de un cubanito desterrado. New York: Free Press, 2010.
López, Iraida H. La autobiografía hispana contemporánea en los Estados Unidos: a través del caleidoscopio. Lewinston / Queenston/Lampeter, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2001.
Machado, Eduardo & Domitrovich, Michael. Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home. New York, Gotham Books, 2007.
Ojito, Mirta: El Mañana. Memorias de un éxodo cubano. Nueva York: Vintage Español, 2006.
Pérez Firmat, Gustavo: Next Year in Cuba. New York : Anchor Books, 1995.
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