Valerica van der Geld-Dodan | Between Memory and Imagination: Homecoming in Aharon Appelfeld’s and Eva Hoffman’s Autobiographies and Fiction

Valerica van der Geld-Dodan | Between Memory and Imagination: Homecoming in Aharon Appelfeld’s and Eva Hoffman’s Autobiographies and Fiction | University of Amsterdam | August 2019 | v.vandergeld-dodan@uva.nl

This research aims at offering a paradigmatic comparison between two authors, Eva Hoffman (1945 -) and Aharon Appelfeld (1932-2018), by examining notions of departure and homecoming as represented in their fictional and autobiographical writings. My intention is to read a selection of Appelfeld’s fictional and autobiographical works against Hoffman’s oeuvre by combining a variety  of methods and theories selected according to the issues and themes addressed in every chapter. A comparative approach between the two authors can be proved essential not only as it offers new insights into the two writers’ works but also as it can be relevant for Jewish and world literature as well, notably in regard to understanding the phenomenon of past and actual migration.