La construction de soi dans les mémoires de l'exil : Anzia Yezierska et Lucette Lagnado

Abstract

Based upon a vision of exile as a traumatic experience, this thesis offers an in-depth analysis of the memoirs of the Jewish Egyptian author Lucette Lagnado and the Jewish Polish writer Anzia Yezierska. Theories of psychological trauma are used in order to demonstrate how these memoirists’ experiences have been embodied in historical and contemporary discourse. In the first chapter we study the reasons behind the exilic experience of each writer. Relying on exile theory conceptualized by Sophia McClellan, this first chapter deals with the spatial, temporal, and linguistic crises caused by the trauma of exile. The second chapter focuses on ethnic identity construction and how women writers conceptualize ethnic identity through their writings. The last chapter deals with the healing methods that the memoirists used in order to overcome the trauma of exile, be it on the personal or communal level