The Impossibility of the Authentic Self: How the Exile Experience Limits the Ability to Create an Individualized Identity

Authors

Jennifer MejiaFollow

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

English

First Advisor's Name

James Sutton

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Asher Milbauer

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

Donna Weir-Soley

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

exile, identity, authentic self, hybridity

Date of Defense

6-30-2023

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the challenges of (re)establishing an individualized identity post-exile by utilizing a cross-cultural approach and analyzing three works of literature: “The Time of the Uprooted”, by Elie Wiesel, “The Memory of Silence: Memoria Del Silencio”, by Uva De Aragon, and “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza”, by Gloria Anzaldúa. Close reading and analysis of the history surrounding these exilic experiences will demonstrate how exilic transplantation results in a necessary deconstruction of identity, followed by the labored, painful effort—always imperfect and incomplete—to reconstruct that identity from its various fragments. This research supports and promotes the notion that exile works to the detriment of what I term an individual’s authentic identity and thus creates a multitude of challenges that surround and bedevil the re-establishment of an authentic self, post-exile, which ultimately allows for a hybrid version of the individualized identity to emerge.

Identifier

FIDC010986

Recommended Citation

Mejia, Jennifer, "The Impossibility of the Authentic Self: How the Exile Experience Limits the Ability to Create an Individualized Identity" (2023). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5197.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5197