Taking the notions of homelessness, exile, and search for identity as reference points, this paper explores the ways in which two Romanian exiled writers, Norman Manea and Andrei Codrescu, through their autobiographic...Taking the notions of homelessness, exile, and search for identity as reference points, this paper explores the ways in which two Romanian exiled writers, Norman Manea and Andrei Codrescu, through their autobiographical writings, engage in creating and representing the concept of Jewishness, this fact adding new layers to their portrayals of rootless identities, at the same time supplying an insight into their own investigations and dentifications of the self. In addition to creating different images and ethnic representations, Manea and Codrescu＇s memoirs focus on portraying the image of the Jew, this being actually the very representation of otherness. The term ＂stranger＂ or ＂foreigner＂ is a generic one, including, irrespective of its ethnic component, all those individuals who guide their life according to a system of values which is different from the one accepted by or imposed on all the people of a country. According to this very pattern the writers taken into discussion in this paper might be considered to be the subject of a double banishment, their state of alienation being the direct result of them belonging not only to the Jewish ethic minority, but also to the very category of exiles. The texts placed under close scrutiny in this research, namely The Hooligan＇s Return （2003）, belonging to Norman Mane, and An lnvohmtary Genius in America＇s Shoes （And What HappenedAfierwards） （200 l）, written by Andrei Codrescu map the mobility of these two writers traversing vast geographical and cultural territories, as testimonies of their nomadic existence, having the express purpose of registering the polymorphous development of their identity and their very capacity of projecting two multi-faceted personalities展开更多
文摘Taking the notions of homelessness, exile, and search for identity as reference points, this paper explores the ways in which two Romanian exiled writers, Norman Manea and Andrei Codrescu, through their autobiographical writings, engage in creating and representing the concept of Jewishness, this fact adding new layers to their portrayals of rootless identities, at the same time supplying an insight into their own investigations and dentifications of the self. In addition to creating different images and ethnic representations, Manea and Codrescu＇s memoirs focus on portraying the image of the Jew, this being actually the very representation of otherness. The term ＂stranger＂ or ＂foreigner＂ is a generic one, including, irrespective of its ethnic component, all those individuals who guide their life according to a system of values which is different from the one accepted by or imposed on all the people of a country. According to this very pattern the writers taken into discussion in this paper might be considered to be the subject of a double banishment, their state of alienation being the direct result of them belonging not only to the Jewish ethic minority, but also to the very category of exiles. The texts placed under close scrutiny in this research, namely The Hooligan＇s Return （2003）, belonging to Norman Mane, and An lnvohmtary Genius in America＇s Shoes （And What HappenedAfierwards） （200 l）, written by Andrei Codrescu map the mobility of these two writers traversing vast geographical and cultural territories, as testimonies of their nomadic existence, having the express purpose of registering the polymorphous development of their identity and their very capacity of projecting two multi-faceted personalities
