A Name of One's Own. The Construction of Identity in Yelin's Shulamis. Stories from a Montreal Childhood

MARÍA LAURA SPOTURNO

Revista Argentina de Estudios Canadienses

Asociación Argentina de Estudios Canadienses - La Ley

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2009 vol. 3 p. 212 - 224

1851-4448

This research article has two main goals: to present Shulamis Yelin (1913-2002) as a minority writer of multicultural and multilingual background and to explore the construction of linguistic and cultural identity in her collection of semi-autobiographical stories Shulamis. Stories from a Montreal Childhood, drawing particular attention to ?I Find My Jewish Name.? I will basically address the identity process experienced by the narrator, Sophie, to become Shulamis. I will argue that this identity conflict can be considered a fictionalized version of Yelin?s struggle to find her literary identity. To account for the construction of linguistic and cultural identity, I will mainly resort to a sociolinguistic point of view (Myers- Scotton, Social Motivations 75-150 and Multiple Voices 142-174), which allows for a thorough analysis of the symbolic value attached to a marked identity.