The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em>
In today’s “liquid” society, boundaries and limits are shifting or disorienting: belonging to no place, not knowing where ‘home’ is, underlines the sense of uncertainty and in-betweenness experienced by people. This contribution suggests five spatial issues Greek-born Canadian author Smaro Kambourel...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/8/1/17 |
| _version_ | 1811269149169549312 |
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| author | Rocco De Leo |
| author_facet | Rocco De Leo |
| author_sort | Rocco De Leo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In today’s “liquid” society, boundaries and limits are shifting or disorienting: belonging to no place, not knowing where ‘home’ is, underlines the sense of uncertainty and in-betweenness experienced by people. This contribution suggests five spatial issues Greek-born Canadian author Smaro Kamboureli has to negotiate with in her ‘poetic diary’ <i>in the second person</i>, where she investigates the duality of the self, displaying the double “I” of the writer’s split subjectivity on a concrete (Greece) as well as abstract (language) place of living. Kamboureli’s account of a duel with and a paradoxical courting of what was and is now for her “the place of language” is related to the awareness of inhabiting a “third” zone of expectations: the difference of origin, of country, of point of view. In conclusion, the different levels of spatial negotiations Kamboureli has had to come to terms with have made her a completely different person. Her life on the border, epitomized in turn by airports, boats, Greece, and the Greek islands, is indeed an endless research of, as well as a conflict with, the ‘Other’, which opens up questions about the relativity of the space/place dichotomy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:36:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-958a26fc4e7847ff84f8b44cbbec4420 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:36:58Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-958a26fc4e7847ff84f8b44cbbec44202022-12-22T03:15:53ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872019-01-01811710.3390/h8010017h8010017The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em>Rocco De Leo0Department of Humanities, University of Salerno, 84084 Salerno, ItalyIn today’s “liquid” society, boundaries and limits are shifting or disorienting: belonging to no place, not knowing where ‘home’ is, underlines the sense of uncertainty and in-betweenness experienced by people. This contribution suggests five spatial issues Greek-born Canadian author Smaro Kamboureli has to negotiate with in her ‘poetic diary’ <i>in the second person</i>, where she investigates the duality of the self, displaying the double “I” of the writer’s split subjectivity on a concrete (Greece) as well as abstract (language) place of living. Kamboureli’s account of a duel with and a paradoxical courting of what was and is now for her “the place of language” is related to the awareness of inhabiting a “third” zone of expectations: the difference of origin, of country, of point of view. In conclusion, the different levels of spatial negotiations Kamboureli has had to come to terms with have made her a completely different person. Her life on the border, epitomized in turn by airports, boats, Greece, and the Greek islands, is indeed an endless research of, as well as a conflict with, the ‘Other’, which opens up questions about the relativity of the space/place dichotomy.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/8/1/17personbelongingdisplacement |
| spellingShingle | Rocco De Leo The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em> Humanities person belonging displacement |
| title | The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em> |
| title_full | The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em> |
| title_fullStr | The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em> |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em> |
| title_short | The Geography of ‘Otherness’: Spaces of Conflict in Smaro Kamboureli’s <em>in the Second Person</em> |
| title_sort | geography of otherness spaces of conflict in smaro kamboureli s em in the second person em |
| topic | person belonging displacement |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/8/1/17 |
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