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ix Acknowledgments Two early events helped to shape the direction of this book and led me to study exile literature as a challenge to contemporary theories about cultural identity. The first experience took place while I was a graduate student at Duke. Jean Baudrillard came to lecture and he spoke about the Bosnian war. He lectured to a packed auditorium full of faculty and students, fascinated, yet bewildered, by his statements about the end of history and the flat, superficial culture of contemporary society. As I sat taking notes, Ariel Dorfman was in the adjacent seat, rubbing his eyes and fidgeting. When Baudrillard spoke about the farcical media coverage of events in Eastern Europe, Dorfman leaned over, grabbed my pen and wrote “PAIN” on the top of my notebook. Baudrillard could not account for the pain. His view of the world was unable to explain the reality of human suffering and the many ways that artists try to express such pain in their work. I knew then that I wanted to confront the playful way that exiles had been appropriated by theory and stripped of their tragic edge. The second crucial experience took place over dinner with my father, Mohammad Sami. My father is Afghan and grew up in the desert, northwest of Kabul, before coming to the United States to pursue his studies. His life has been a painful example of the difficulties of living across two cultures. Yet, he is a proud man, proud of his heritage, despite the overwhelming prejudices people from his country face in the United States. I asked him during dinner about the nomads in Afghanistan. Did they really have an existence that was unbound by geography? He looked at me with surprise , shocked at the suggestion. His description of their life, as he had observed it, gave me an important insight into the way that the nomad, just like the exile, had been co-opted by postmodern theories as representative of a life free of pain and confining boundaries. Careful understanding of the conditions of the exile or the nomad leads to a practical denial of theoretical claims that represent these experiences as utopic. These two experiences have helped to frame my interests in this book, but without the help, encouragement, and insights of friends, colleagues, and family I would never have been able to turn my interests into what you are reading today. When I began this project I was interested in exploring my combined interests in history , literature, and philosophy as they relate to the case of exile. As a student of philosophy and Hispanic culture at Harvard, I have to thank my professors Stanley Cavell, Carlos Fuentes, and Luis Fernandez-Cifuentes for teaching me that the interactions between these fields were not only fascinating, but were also an inescapable part of my intellectual curiosity. As a graduate student at Duke in the Department of Romance Studies I was provided with a supportive environment that encouraged me to continue to work on these issues. Many thanks to Fred Jameson, Walter Mignolo, Alberto Moreiras, and Stephanie Sieburth, who all read earlier versions of this book and gave me valuable comments. I still reap the benefits of the intellectual exchange I was able to forge with my fellow students, Alex Fitts and Christina Tourino, who gave me patient and detailed comments on this manuscript. I am especially grateful for the continued commitment of Christina to this project. Her unwavering faith in me has been crucial. I x Acknowledgments would also like to thank Natalie Hartman and Sharon Mújica, of the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies, for the many ways in which they helped me. Neil Larsen has been especially supportive and his enthusiasm after reading early pieces of my argument helped to support me through this process. Thanks also to Vassos Argyrou, who read and carefully commented on the manuscript. While conducting research in Spain and the Southern Cone many writers and critics, especially Carlos Franz, shared their thoughts and personal experiences with me and for that I am extremely grateful. I was also fortunate to receive funding for this book from the Tinker Foundation, The Program in International Studies and the Department of Romance Studies at Duke University, The Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies, Illinois State University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Portions of this book relating to Ariel Dorfman have been previously published in the Review of Contemporary Fiction. I would like to thank...

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