Foreign to myself: body and migration in Tatiana Salem Levy’s A chave de casa

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/va.v25.n2.2025.217495

Keywords:

estrangment, body, memory, migration, trauma

Abstract

Using Memory Studies and Postcolonial Studies as its starting point, this article will approach themes such as body and migration in the novel A chave de casa (2007), by Tatiana Salem Levy. Through the narrator of Levy’s book, we will reflect upon different experiences that she lives through, particularly those concerning the feminine body. In this regard, we will explore, on the one hand, the dichotomy immobility/mobility and, on the other, the memories that are inscribed on the body. We will, then, understand in which way the experiences of «estrangement», «displacement» and, even, «trauma» inscribe themselves on the migrant’s body in general, and on the feminine body, in particular.

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Author Biographies

  • Ana Castro, Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de Letras

    Master's student in Modern Literatures, Arts and Cultures at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, where she is developing a dissertation in the area of ​​African Literatures in Portuguese. She graduated from the same institution in Languages, Literatures and Cultures (2022), with minors in Comparative Arts and Cultures and Portuguese Studies. After her degree, she attended the free course Introduction to the Study of Cape Verdean Literature (2022), at NOVA FCSH. She has attended short complementary training courses in various areas and attended several colloquia and conferences in her area of ​​specialization. Her main areas of work and academic interest are African Literatures in Portuguese, Brazilian Literature, Memory Studies and Gender Studies. She is currently a research fellow within the scope of the project “WomenLit – Women's Literature: Memories, Peripheries and Resistances in the Luso-Afro-Brazilian Atlantic” (PTDC/LLT-LES/0858/2021)

  • Alva Teixeiro, University of Coruña

    Professor at the University of Coruña and Associate Foreign Professor of the Postgraduate Program in Literature at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul.

References

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ERLL, Astrid, e NUNNING, Ansgar. Conceitos e métodos para o estudo da literatura e/enquanto memória cultural. In: ALVES, Fernanda Mota; SOARES, Luísa Afonso; RODRIGUES, Cristiana Vasconcelos (orgs.). Estudos de Memória. Teoria e análise cultural. V. N. Famalicão: Edições Húmus, 2016, p.245-266.

FUX, Jacques, e RISSARDO, Agnes. Herança e migração em A chave de casa de Tatiana Salem Levy. Ciências & Letras - FAPA, [S.l.], n. 50, p. 25–38, 2011. Disponível em <https://www.academia.edu/10371811/Heran%C3%A7a_e_migra%C3%A7%C3%A3o_em_A_Chave_de_Casa_de_Tatiana_Salem_Levy>. Acesso em: 6 abr 2023

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LEVY, Tatiana Salem. A chave de casa. Lisboa: Edições Cotovia, 2007.

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NÜNNING, Ansgar. A “verdade da memória” e o “frágil poder da memória”: a literatura como meio de explorar ficções e enquadramentos da memória. In: ALVES, Fernanda Mota; SOARES, Luísa Afonso; RODRIGUES, Cristiana Vasconcelos (orgs.). Estudos de Memória. Teoria e análise cultural. V. N. Famalicão: Edições Húmus, 2016, p.219-244.

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Published

2025-04-28

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2025): Women's Literature: Memories, Peripheries and Resistance in the Luso-Afro-Brazilian Space

Section

Dossiê 46: Literatura de Mulheres: Memórias, Periferias e Resistências no Espaço

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Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Castro, Alva Teixeiro

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How to Cite

CASTRO, Ana; TEIXEIRO, Alva. Foreign to myself: body and migration in Tatiana Salem Levy’s A chave de casa. Via Atlântica, São Paulo, v. 25, n. 2, p. 60–75, 2025. DOI: 10.11606/va.v25.n2.2025.217495. Disponível em: https://revistas.usp.br/viaatlantica/article/view/217495.. Acesso em: 3 jan. 2026.