Diasporic Writing In The Novels Of Isabel Allende And Mar(?)a Due(?)as: A Long Petal Of The Sea And The Captain’s Daughters

Isabel Allende(1942 —)and Mar(?)a Due(?)as(1964 —)are currently the two best-selling female writers in the Spanish literary world and have maintained a high level of creative activity.In the last two years,they have respectively released a new work: A Long Petal of the Sea(2019)and The Captain’s Daughters(2018).These two novels share certain similarities in terms of background and theme,telling stories about exiles to the Americas of Spanish people from different social classes in the 1930 s.As famous novelists,Allende and Due(?)as have received much attention at home and abroad.In China,their works have been widely translated and are well known among Chinese readers.In the literary field,there are a large amount of academic studies about these two writers,but in general,the methodologies used are quite limited,mainly focused on two points: one is the typical styles of their representative works,for example,the magical realism of The House of the Spirits and the espionage of The Time in Between;the other is to analyze the female figures using the feminism.In order to find an alternative path,interested in the new diasporic writing and taking into account the exile experiences of the authors themselves,this paper chooses the two recently published novels as objects of investigation and aims to explore the connotation,the value and the limitation of their diasporic writing from the perspective of diasporic criticism.First,the presentations of the diaspora are exposed from different aspects.Despite the fact that diasporic subjects and forms differ: in A Long Petal of the Sea it is about the exile of intellectuals and in The Captain’s Daughters,the migration of the working-class,the diaspora is a multifaceted metamorphosis in both books.The protagonists cross the Atlantic Ocean and travel to the Americas.Geographical displacement can also distort the perception of time,enriching life experiences.In addition,expatriates are mentally separated not only from the homeland but also from the country of destination and are located in the territory of "non-belonging" as a "dual other",resulting in a strong homesickness and the desire to return home.The spatial,temporal,spiritual and sentimental aspects intertwin and form the diasporic context of each novel.Second,the problem of identity caused by the diaspora is concerned.The identification process of the characters is divided into three stages: at the beginning of entering the country of destination,expatriates not only lose their original identity,but also suffer a linguistic and cultural aphasia;then,their foreignness decides that they are marginalized in the society;in order to adapt to the new environment,they have to deal with this identity crisis.The two novels have offered us different solutions: the protagonists of A Long Petal of the Sea have reconciled with themselves after trying to return to the past,while the Captain’s daughters find a braver and stronger personality by moving forward to the future.Finally,the positive and negative points of the two works’ diasporic writing are discussed.On the one hand,the role of diasporic literature in recording history and reflecting social realities deserves recognition.While writing the exiles of two families,Allende and Due(?)as interspersed a large number of real events,persons and details,leaving a personal testimony of the collective history.At the same time,through the characters,the two writers show the power and courage of diasporic groups.In the current world in which the diaspora is becoming more and more common,the diasporic spirit has acquired more humanistic value.On the other hand,the characteristics of popular literature of these two novels should not be neglected.The bland narrative techniques,stereotyped characters,and repeated plots weaken the literary,readable,andartistic features of the work,making them commercial products under the cultural consumerism.Through the diasporic analysis,the thesis has reached the following conclusions: A Long Petal of the Sea and The Captain’s Daughters present a large number of diasporic elements,care about the emotional and identity crisis of the exiles and fulfill the historical,humanistic and social roles of diasporic literature,being the return of the diaspora as a literary theme;however,it should also be recognized that they lack literary and aesthetic value and cannot be fully judged as a successful attempt.