The Questions of Identity in the Novels of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Diaspora

Abstract

This text will analyze the novels What is Not Yours is Not Yours (2018), by Alexander Hemon, Diary of a Nomad (2017) by Bekim Sejranović, and Me’med, Red Bandana and Snowflake (2017) by Semezdin Mehmedinović, as the latest literary achievements of Bosnian authors in exile. Starting from the assumption that each of the novels brings motifs of immigrant literature such as border identity, cultural nostalgia, nomadic status, protagonists who are social outsiders, we will examine their similarities and differences, but also changes within each author’s literary opus. Given the fact that these authors base their novels on real life events, and they combine facts and fiction, we will briefly focus on biographical facts and details from the interviews they’ve given on immigration and their position in the new homeland and the new language.

Keywords

• Aleksandar Hemon
• Sezmedin Mehmedinović
• Bekim Sejranović
• exile
• autobiographical prose
• identity