The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma
Nationalism re-emerges from contemporary cultural debates under a panoply of controversial perspectives. In some of them like, for instance, the contemporary fields of border studies and the study of migrant cultures and writing, it fairly often takes the shape of an effort to strengthen hierarch...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Bucharest University Press
2019-10-01
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| Series: | University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ubr.rev.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PetyaTsonevaIvanova.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797641401940312064 |
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| author | Petya Tsoneva Ivanova |
| author_facet | Petya Tsoneva Ivanova |
| author_sort | Petya Tsoneva Ivanova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Nationalism re-emerges from contemporary cultural debates under a
panoply of controversial perspectives. In some of them like, for instance, the
contemporary fields of border studies and the study of migrant cultures and writing,
it fairly often takes the shape of an effort to strengthen hierarchies, hold differences
together into ideologically ‘sterile’, supposedly homogeneous units, and to delimit
overflowing identities. What binds a great many such contemporary reassessments is
the urge to retrace or excavate past experience of nationalism, especially in cases
when its purportedly beneficial properties of sheltering nations are brought to such
ends as dictatorship, autocratic and authoritarian rule.
The present article ruminates on those violent forms through the medium of
two literary works authored by contemporary writers in its attempt to analyse the
traumatic, but also prolific potential of re-membering past oppression. The study is
concerned with their responses to an excessively violent political form of selfproclaimed nationalism which are worth considering because of their borderline
status. Both Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova fall into the category of migrant
writers. Of Georgian and Bulgarian descent, both writing in English, each one of them
retraces a remembered and oppressive past experience in an effort that aims to
reconstruct the contemporaneity of their countries of origin. Alongside specific
contextual details, the investigation meditates on the common features of their
fictional responses to a shared past. A meaningful outcome of their retracings is the
critical distance that forms between remembered experience and the contemporary
state of their birth lands which illuminates in a creative way the problematic
achievement and development of state sovereignty. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:45:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-45db61de39474ffd94be41071c92f6b7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2734-5963 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:45:08Z |
| publishDate | 2019-10-01 |
| publisher | Bucharest University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series |
| spelling | doaj.art-45db61de39474ffd94be41071c92f6b72023-11-02T10:22:42ZengBucharest University PressUniversity of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series2734-59632019-10-01IX/20191758210.31178/UBR.9.1.8The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political TraumaPetya Tsoneva Ivanova0St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo; BulgariaNationalism re-emerges from contemporary cultural debates under a panoply of controversial perspectives. In some of them like, for instance, the contemporary fields of border studies and the study of migrant cultures and writing, it fairly often takes the shape of an effort to strengthen hierarchies, hold differences together into ideologically ‘sterile’, supposedly homogeneous units, and to delimit overflowing identities. What binds a great many such contemporary reassessments is the urge to retrace or excavate past experience of nationalism, especially in cases when its purportedly beneficial properties of sheltering nations are brought to such ends as dictatorship, autocratic and authoritarian rule. The present article ruminates on those violent forms through the medium of two literary works authored by contemporary writers in its attempt to analyse the traumatic, but also prolific potential of re-membering past oppression. The study is concerned with their responses to an excessively violent political form of selfproclaimed nationalism which are worth considering because of their borderline status. Both Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova fall into the category of migrant writers. Of Georgian and Bulgarian descent, both writing in English, each one of them retraces a remembered and oppressive past experience in an effort that aims to reconstruct the contemporaneity of their countries of origin. Alongside specific contextual details, the investigation meditates on the common features of their fictional responses to a shared past. A meaningful outcome of their retracings is the critical distance that forms between remembered experience and the contemporary state of their birth lands which illuminates in a creative way the problematic achievement and development of state sovereignty.https://ubr.rev.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PetyaTsonevaIvanova.pdfglobal colonialitypostcolonialism and post-socialismauthoritarian regimesmigrant writingtherapeutic recollectionanthea nicholsonkapka kassabova |
| spellingShingle | Petya Tsoneva Ivanova The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series global coloniality postcolonialism and post-socialism authoritarian regimes migrant writing therapeutic recollection anthea nicholson kapka kassabova |
| title | The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma |
| title_full | The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma |
| title_fullStr | The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma |
| title_full_unstemmed | The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma |
| title_short | The “Passing Clouds” of Nationalism in Anthea Nicholson and Kapka Kassabova: Cross-Border Recollection of Political Trauma |
| title_sort | passing clouds of nationalism in anthea nicholson and kapka kassabova cross border recollection of political trauma |
| topic | global coloniality postcolonialism and post-socialism authoritarian regimes migrant writing therapeutic recollection anthea nicholson kapka kassabova |
| url | https://ubr.rev.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PetyaTsonevaIvanova.pdf |
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