Mosaic of History and Memory in Alexander Motyl’s Novel Fall River

Abstract

anything, and addresses complex ethnic relations and political dilemmas that were part of the characters’ everyday life. While history is the normative frame of reference in the novel, a sense of home and the awareness of its traumatic loss are some of the centrifugal forces of the story, which determine the characters’ attitudes. They evoke the idea of uprootedness (Weil) and nostalgic memory (Boym), which will be analyzed as an essential part of immigrant narratives.