“Only Sow Words”: Cheran’s A Second Sunrise as Postcolonial Autobiography

Isabel Alonso-Breto (Universitá di Barcellona)

Abstract

Questo saggio discute l’antologia di poesie A Second Sunrise (2012) del poeta tamil in esilio Cheran come autobiografia postcoloniale, quale narrazione della vita del poeta e autobiografia comunitaria rappresentativa della comunità (diasporica) in Sri Lanka. La vita e l’opera di Cheran sono incentrate su un solido legame al luogo di origine e, sebbene fisicamente estraniato da quando è in esilio, egli non ha mai smesso di onorarlo attraverso il suo costante sforzo poetico e l’attivismo politico. Il senso di comunità e il legame con la terra animano A Second Sunrise e collegano concettualmente e tematicamente l’intera produzione poetica. Servendosi della teoria della life writing questa lettura vuol mostrare che l’antologia, pur sottolineando una necessaria continuità di senso per il sé esiliato, mette in luce le molteplici possibilità di riconfigurazione identitaria in contesti traumatici.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-192

Parole chiave: postcolonial autobiography, Lankan Tamils, Cheran, poetry and war, poetry as autobiography, life writing.

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