ELLIS ISLAND: STORIES OF TRAUMA AND IMMIGRATION
ELLIS ISLAND: STORIES OF TRAUMA AND IMMIGRATION

Summary/Abstract: Structured around the space of Ellis Island as organizing metaphor, the study focuses on the testimonies of the immigrants coming mainly from southern and eastern Europe, gathered in “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” by David M. Brownstone, Irene M. Franck and Douglass Brownstone. A tribute to the 18 million people who made their journey from the Old to the New World between 1890 and 1920 in the largest migration in the recent history of mankind, the book is the story of many stories about humiliation, pain and despair suffered in the name of hope. In exploring the complex relations established between personal testimony - political context and fiction -nonfiction, I investigate the extent to which Ellis Island, as the last but one point of destination of an epic journey to America can be analyzed as a traumatic/traumatizing cultural landscape.

• Details
• Contents