engleski

Crossing the Atlantic: Imagology and Stories from the Central European Peasant Emigrants in the USA

The migration from rural parts of Central Europe marked the history of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Literary communication among members of this global social movement was mostly related to oral and popular texts. On both sides of the Atlantic orally circulated narratives about the way of life in American cities, the opportunities opening up after crossing the Atlantic and on successful individuals who realize their ‘American Dream’ and the ethnic newspapers in USA published life stories and biographical notes about successful newcomers. Members of intellectual elites, who problematized overseas emigration in their literary and autobiographical works, imbedded in their texts testimonies and stories about migration and experiences from New World taken from conversational situations and newspaper articles. The paper applies the concept of narrative identity in the analysis of immigrant stories. According to Paul Ricoeur, individual or community narrative identity could bridge the gap between history and fiction. Through analysis of the examples of literary treatment of those voices of others in the texts of authors who wrote about overseas emigrants in the travel writings, short stories, and novels, we question the image of America in European literature. In imagological studies, this image was examined as an area in which were projected personal and collective aspirations and dreams. The paper questions the double refraction of the real and desired, in the imaginary worlds of literary texts, and in small oral forms framed by those literary narratives: life stories, rumors, anecdotes and recounted sensational news.

Migration ; imagology ; narrative identity ; history ; fiction.

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