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Contemporary multilingual writing often reveals and works through collective memory and trauma inscribed in language, such as the Shoah, wartime atrocities, colonialism, genocide, exile and migration. Often composed by members of the second or third generation, these texts can be considered postmemory narratives (Marianne Hirsch). In this contribution, I scrutinise how these texts, with their particular multilingual poetics, question official memory discourses and offer an alternative perspective, often that of underprivileged subjects such as immigrants, guest workers and former colonial subjects. My comparative analysis focuses on texts by Tomer Gardi, Katja Petrowskaja and Igiaba Scego. In my study, I am particularly interested in the nexus of language, migration, multilingualism and memory that is suggested in the texts and that offers a starting point for the negotiation of new, inclusive concepts of belonging., Transnational 20th Century. Literatures, arts and cultures, V. 6 (2022): Radici dinamiche dell’Europa

L�����criture de voyage conna��t un grand succ��s �� partir de 1800 environ, notamment parce que c���est le genre le plus adapt�� pour d��crire, accompagner et interpr��ter les discours identitaires individuels et collectifs en jeu �� l�����poque. Dans cet article, Vlasta propose une nouvelle approche comparative qui se concentre sur l���analyse de strat��gies textuelles telles que l���intertextualit�� et le multilinguisme et examine leur fonction dans les processus de construction identitaire., Travel writing was hugely popular from around 1800 onwards, not least because it was the genre that was most suitable for describing, accompanying and performing the individual and collective identity discourses at stake at the time. In this article, Vlasta proposes a new comparative approach that focuses on the analysis of textual strategies such as intertextuality and multilingualism and scrutinises their function in processes of identity construction.

This article focuses on the transnationalisation of literary fields that has been taking place since the emergence of literature by migrant writers. This development occurred earlier in some national contexts and later in others. Independent of the historical evolution, however, the presence of migrant authors and their writings caused major changes in literary fields: authors have different cultural and linguistic backgrounds than the majority of their readers, the texts are set in far-away places; thus, also literary critics and scholars start to look into new topics and regions and readers are eventually confronted with new worlds. Consequently, transnationalisation also has political implications. However, it has not encompassed all aspects of the literary field. In fact, the individual and different histories of literature and migration in various national contexts show that the national frame is still a powerful and influential aspect. This paper discusses two examples – Austria and Great Britain – of the described transnationalisation and examines the role still held by national frames in literary fields., Transnational 20th Century. Literatures, Arts and Cultures, volume 2, numero 1 (2018)