Remembering a Life: Narration and Memory in David Albahari's Novel Mamac

Abstract

The literary work of David Albahari has so far been studied in the context of the problem of exile in the cultural and ideological paradigm of post-Yugoslav literature. The author's personal experience of exile has become a key for critical readings of his novels and defining their poetical features. Beyond the author's autobiographical experience, the aim of this article is to offer a new reading of Albahariʼs novel Bait and to describe the role of memory in the organisation of narrative text and (re)construction of personal identity. The analysis is based on the relationship between reality (history) and its narrative (linguistic) construction through memories.