ABSTRACT
The essay intends to analyze contemporary novels that deal with memory outside the theoretical framework of the so-called traumatic realism. The paper begins with an outstanding version of trauma studies: the relationship between traumatic realism and the archive. The assumption is to study the theme of nostalgia on two novels: Mircea Cărtărescu’s Nostalgia and Hisham Matar’s The Return. Finally, the paper emphasizes the relationship between contemporary literature, affects and temporality.
Keywords:
temporality; traumatic realism; Nostalgia; Mircea Cărtărescu; Hisham Matar