From hungry ghost to phallic mother : Linda Lê's doubling of the Vietnamese ancestor in French exile

13 page(s

Lecteur idéal, lecteur imaginaire: the intertextual relationship fostered by Linda Lê with an imaginary Ingeborg Bachmann

© Dr. Alexandra KurmannThe French writing author of Vietnamese origin, Linda Lê (1963- ), has spoken of the late Austrian poet-turned-writer, Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973), as her literary kin. Having disclosed that she feels haunted by Bachmann, Lê also declares that her novel, Lettre morte (1999), was influenced by Bachmann’s canonized novel, Malina (1971). Further to these admissions, the self-exiled Bachmann also appears as a recurrent subject of study in Lê’s early literary essays and late fiction. Yet, despite such a wealth of direct intertextual references, to date no critical study has broached the subject of their literary relations. The present thesis therefore addresses this issue. In turn, I establish that this intertextual relationship holds particular sway over Lê’s formation as a writer in voluntary exile. At present, Lê is predominantly viewed by scholars as a postcolonial writer. However, the discovery of her engagement with an authoritative voice of the European tradition recasts critical interpretations of Lê’s writing. Rereading Lê through the lens of her relations with Bachmann reveals the associated evolution of an Antigone figure, whose feminist resistance is derived from Lê’s interpretation of Bachmann and of Malina’s narrator as a rebellious dissenter. I demonstrate that through the recurring Antigone motif, Bachmann’s ethical, post-war rhetoric can be heard to speak again in the contemporary, postcolonial context of Lê’s work. Concurrently, I argue that hybridity discourses in Lê’s exile-writing open out a third space of enunciation, which assists in revisiting the source text, Malina. In this way, analysis of the intertextual relationship in question begets a revision of both the work of the predecessor and her literary disciple. Lê is known for eliding her Vietnamese origins, excepting to grieve in her texts for the death of a metonymical father figure, representing her homeland. The ghostly father constitutes an absent “lecteur idéal […] lecteur imaginaire” (ideal […] imaginary reader) to whom Lê declares she writes. However, as the paternal figure fades in the text, I will demonstrate the way in which Bachmann takes his place as an intertextual interlocutor. Employing and differentiating Harold Bloom’s postulation that the burgeoning writer adopts a late precursor to emulate, I argue that Lê replaces her imaginary paternal reader with a female literary forebear. This substitution comes to pass by means of three intertextual processes, which I identify and trace in ten texts, over a sixteen year period in Lê’s early to mid-writing career. Lê can initially be seen to textually appropriate Bachmann the woman and writer in her earliest literary criticism (1989, 1991) by expropriating citations by and about her precursor. I subsequently argue that Lê produces a transformative imitation of Malina in her trilogy, consisting of Les trois Parques, Voix: Une crise and Lettre morte (1997-1999). Lastly, I show how Lê intratextually incorporates her pre-written portrayals of Bachmann as a resistant Antigone figure into her fiction and literary criticism (2000, 2005). The study in hand reveals that this intertextual project is ultimately an endeavour on the part of Lê to belong, in an imaginary sense, to the collectivity of post-war writers who formed her precursor’s literary family in self-exile

Returned to sender : writing back to a literary precursor

29 page(s

What is Malina? Decoding Ingeborg Bachmann's poetics of secrecy

Since the publication of Ingeborg Bachmann's feminist novel, Malina, in 1971, the identity of the eponym has been the subject of ongoing debate. By asking the question "What is Malina?" rather than seeking out the identity of the male protagonist, a new discovery has been made owing to the recent translation of texts from the Hebrew concerning the Jewish Holocaust. These reveal that the term denotes the secret hiding places in which Ashkenazi Jews sought to evade deportation by Nazi authorities during World War II. Thus, the novel reveals the safe house as a metaphorical representation of the experience of womanhood in postwar Europe. By rereading the novel in light of these findings, this article further argues that Bachmann employs the malina as a private code that enables her to articulate the unspeakable through a furtive poetics of secrecy.19 page(s

When the case writer eclipses the case : Linda Lê's case study of Ingeborg Bachmann

15 page(s

An Interview with Linda Lê

The interview was conducted in Paris on 19 November 2010 by Alexandra Kurmann.6 page(s

Intertextual weaving in the work of Linda Lê : imagining the ideal reader

Intertextual Weaving in the Work of Linda Lê: Imagining the Ideal Reader uncovers the primary textual relationship that Linda Lê (1963– ), the most prolific Francophone author of the Vietnamese diaspora, fosters with a literary precursor of Austrian descent: the feminist writer-in-exile, Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973). This study offers an overdue exploration of the notably European roots of Lê's writerly formation. It traces an unexamined feminist import in her work to a sixteen-year inter- and intra-textual engagement with Bachmann and positions the latter as an imagined ideal reader of Lê's oeuvre. Intertextual analyses of Bachmann's post-war novel, Malina, with Lê's literary essays, early fiction, and trilogy, reveal that to overcome the challenges of writing in exile Lê adopts an alternative literary fore-bear of the European tradition.183 page(s

Introduction: Transdiasporic Rencontres in Việt Kiều Literature

This special issue follows a conference entitled ‘Rencontres: A Gathering of Voices of the Vietnamese Diaspora’ that was held at the University of Melbourne, December 1-2 in 2016 and which sought to enable, for the first time, the titular transdiasporic rencontres or encounters between international authors of the Vietnamese diaspora. The present amalgam of previously unpublished texts written by celebrated Francophone and Anglophone authors of Vietnamese descent writing in France, New Caledonia and Australia today is the result of the intercultural exchanges that took place during that event. Literary texts by Linda Lê, Anna Moï and Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut are followed by writerly reflections on the theme of transdiasporic encounters from Hoai Huong Nguyen, Jean Vanmai and Hoa Pham. Framing and enriching these texts, scholarly contributions by established experts in the field consider the literary, cultural and linguistic transfers that characterize contemporary writing by authors of Vietnamese origin across the Francophone world. Ce volume spécial réunit les Actes du colloque ‘Rencontres : A Gathering of Voices of the Vietnamese Diaspora’ qui s’est tenue à l’Université de Melbourne les 1er et 2 décembre 2016 et qui visait à faciliter, pour la première fois, les rencontres entre les auteurs, chercheurs et universitaires internationaux de la diaspora vietnamienne. Les fruits de leurs échanges interculturels y sont réunis dans ce présent recueil sous deux formes complémentaires : d’un côté, les articles d’experts en littérature francophone comparée ; de l’autre, les contributions créatives de célèbres auteurs francophones et anglophones d’origine vietnamienne basés aujourd’hui en France, en Nouvelle Calédonie et en Australie. Les textes littéraires de Linda Lê, Anna Moï et Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut, suivis de réflexions d’auteurs par Hoai Huong Nguyen, Hoa Pham et Jean Vanmai sur le thème des rencontres transdiasporiques, se retrouvent enrichis par les études savantes menées sur les transferts littéraires, culturelles et linguistiques qui caractérisent l’écriture contemporaine des écrivains d’origine vietnamienne dans le monde francophone

The Postwar body : the literary double in the exile literature of Linda Lê

18 page(s