Identitățile multiple în transformarea lumii literare. Elif Șafak [Articol]

Abstract

Three questions will always remain − as we tend to believe today − at the top of the list: who are we? where do we come from? where are we going? In the society-of-the “present,” the question “Where are we going?” seems to be more important than the question “Where are we coming from?” Respectively, we intend to scan quickly the problem of multiple identities in the transformations of the human Identity related to the social and literary present. From this point of view, Elif Shafak’s polyphonic writing shows the contrasting aspects of identity’s multiplicity. In Shafak’s works we discover the complexity of a (meta)literary debate about the freedom of speech, values-non-values/or and the new family values, waves of migration, various dimensions of exile, human rights (declared, demanded, obtained, respected, violated, claimed, regained, reformed, etc.), depression (conditioned, unconditional), and the crisis of identity. Why Elif Shafak? We chose this author for her bold, honest, insightful speech on identities that generate and illustrate the transformation both in the field of literary reflection and in her social and personal life. She is one of the most expressive voices in the public space and the most consistent presence in contemporary writing. She is a personality that represents her epoch in multiple ways, at the geocultural crossroads of the Western-Eastern models, at the cultural-anthropological interference of the femininity-masculinity entities, and at the geo-historical intersection of two millennia. Shafak correlates the problems of urgency of the present being and the hyperconnectivity of individuals with the crisis of the identity in the Age of Division.