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

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Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationLanham, USA
PublisherLexington Books
Number of pages183
ISBN (Print)9781498514873
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Publication series

NameAfter the empire : the Francophone world and postcolonial France
PublisherLexington Books

Keywords

  • Linda Lê
  • intertextuality
  • Ingeborg Bachmann
  • Postcolonial literature
  • Postwar exile writing
  • migrant writing
  • Feminist resistance
  • Antigone
  • Harold Bloom
  • Literary forebear

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