Scars of exile in the Milton Hatoum's fiction

Abstract

Based on the book Romance of origins, origins of the novel, written by Marthe Robert, this work analyzes, in a first time, Two brothers, by Milton Hatoum, as a family romance, taking into account their cultural context in order to understand how the family conflicts that permeate the narrative contributed, directly or indirectly, for the foromation of Yaqub character, specifically with regard to its bastard condition. Therefore, it’s proposed to reconsider the definition of bastard, seeking to understand it as an existential condition that, in the case of Yaqub, characterized suffered as a result of exiled. Then, suggests understand the travel as a curse when it takes on a punitive character. For this, it’s based on the book Theory of Travel: poetic geography, written by Michel Onfray, where the biblical story of Cain and Abel is an inspiration for the author to theorize what he calls the genesis of wandering, which comes to be an "inherited" curse of Cain and that presupposes the perception of the punitive nature of the trip. The idea developed by Onfray contributes to a broader analysis of Yaqub who was cursed by exile, like Cain, and also carried a mark on the body that served as a memorial of hatred between brothers. This work is not only the pursuit of membership and social acceptance, but also of concern regarding the very origin, the loss of references, loneliness, pain and by uprooting the sense of orphanhood often in exile.