Author: Neyret, Juan Pablo

Source: Romance Studies, Volume 23, Number 3, November 2005 , pp. 237-246(10)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

Abstract:

Starting from Philippe Lejeune's definition of the 'autobiographical pact', this article aims to explore how this convention is inevitably broken in a writer's condition of exile. We have chosen an autobiographical essay by the Argentine writer Tomás Eloy Martínez, 'El lenguaje de la inexistencia' ('The language of non-existence') to study the consequences of such a situation. First, we analyse Lejeune's theories of autobiography. Second, we consider the vanishing of the self in the forced situation of exile. In the third part of the article, we demonstrate through textual analysis how, in the case of an exile, the precepts established by Lejeune are broken in three instances: the proper name, the 'I' (the first person) and the textual contract formerly established between the author and the reader.

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/026399005x70685

Publication date: 2005-11-01

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