Identity and Narratives in These are the Names of Tommy Wieringa

Authors:

Pages: 309-316
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/MHLU8562

Abstract:

Tommy Wieringa is one of the most prominent contemporary Dutch novelists. The novel These are the names (2012) depicts, on the one hand, the need for faith of a police commissioner in midlife crisis and, on the other, the journey of a group refugees in the steppe in search for civilization and salvation. On the edge of existence and without any point of narrative reference, the refugees kill one of them and then sacrifice their act. Using a postmodern approach, in particular psychoanalytic theories and the theory of René Girard about the scapegoat mechanism, this paper attempts to show the connection between the lack of narrative and the birth of the ritual, which is later to become a myth. This underlines the dynamic nature of identity and its dependence on various narratives.

Keywords:

identity, narrative, scapegoat, religion, migration

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