The immigrants' Manaus in the works of Milton Hatoum
Vol.37,No.1(2016)
Abstract
Keywords:
contemporary Brazilian fiction; Milton Hatoum; immigration; multiculturality
Pages:
59–67
The paper examines the themes of immigration, identity, and the city in two novels written by Brazilian author Milton Hatoum. The symmetry of the fictional worlds in Hatoum's The Brothers and Tale of a Certain Orient helps the novels establish a peculiar dialogue. By using the Amazonian Port Manaus as a setting for their plots, the novels tell the dramatic stories of two families of Lebanese immigrants. Apart from being a potent subject in both novels, the topic of migration is also linked to that of the process of identity reconfiguration undergone by the immigrants and their descendants. The characters' local identity is shaped by their cohabitation with the various immigrant communities (such as the Portuguese, Lebanese, Jewish, and German communities) that populate the Amazonian town. The intercultural cohabitation, which combines the ancestral traditions with the images of the New World, fills the everyday life of a multicultural urban population which, despite maintaining its primary identity, keeps transforming itself through the contact with the Other.
contemporary Brazilian fiction; Milton Hatoum; immigration; multiculturality
59–67
References
Hatoum, M. (2006). Dois irmãos. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Hatoum, M. (2008). Relato de um certo Oriente. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Mott, M. L. (2007). Imigração árabe: um certo oriente no Brasil. – In Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, Brasil: 500 anos de povoamento (pp. 179–196). Rio de Janeiro: IBGE. http://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv6687.pdf, 19.09.2014.
