In a state of memory / Tununa Mercado ; translated by Peter Kahn ; with an introduction by Jean Franco.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mercado, Tununa, 1939-

Series:

Latin American women writers

Standardized Title:

En estado de memoria. English

Language:

English

Spanish

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 155 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2001]

Summary:

In a State of Memory is a novelistic memoir about exile, displacement, and return. Tununa Mercado explores the psychological and physical effects of the narrator's transition into a life in exile: the splintering of her identity, the difficulties of incorporating herself into a host culture, her physical illness, and the haunting memories of her past and the loved ones she left behind. In exile the narrator is constantly confronted with the vicariousness of her experiences -- she wears secondhand clothes, buys secondhand furniture, and experiences other people's lives at second hand. After periods of exile in France and Mexico, she returns to Buenos Aires and finds it difficult to recognize the city, to attach memories to particular places. Through flashbacks, recollections, and short narratives, this story powerfully communicates an individual's experience of exile from an emotional and psychological perspective while at the same time linking the individual experience to the collective one.

Contents:

The Illness 1

The Cold That Never Comes 18

Poor Person's Body 28

Curriculum Vitae 41

Oracles 47

The Order of the Day 55

Emissary 60

Cellular Chambers 65

The Furtive Species 73

The Guided Visit 82

Houses 91

Embassy 96

Container 101

Phenomenology 108

Exposure 116

The Wall 142.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0803231571

0803282699

OCLC:

44932089