Abstract
In my short stories, I’ve strived to transform memory and silence into narrative, an act of reclamation and knowing. Missing familial narratives become speculative forays into intimacy, via the themes of lost art and war: in my short story “Repatriation,” a woman returns to her childhood home to find that her recently deceased father has sold everything—house, property, possessions, every physical reminder of her early life erased, including a portrait bust brought home illegally from the second world war. The woman tries to piece together a coherent picture of her father in order to understand. Her strongest memories of him, she suspects, may be imaginary. My in-progress essay collection, Attribution of Influence, blends personal and researched essays to explore loss, influence, and desire. The title essay weaves stories about my father’s and uncle’s PTSD and the theme of lost art, including the life of Lina Franziska “Fränzi” Fehrmann, model for the Die Brücke artists. Each essay shows the influence of the absent—the missing person, abandoned places, objects of desire, and ghost lives that drive or subsume us without our realizing it. Like Lina, my father and uncle survived World War II—or versions of them did. What exactly was lost?
Presenters
Margaret LuongoAssociate Professor of Creative Writing, English, Miami University, Ohio, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Memory, Silence, Narrative, Lost Art, PTSD, Loss, Identity
