Open Seminars - RHOSE 2014

“IDENTITY IS A SLIPPERY FISH”: EVA TROUT IN SEARCH OF THE LOST HOME

This seminar will be devoted to Elizabeth Bowen’s last novel Eva Trout or Changing Scenes (1968). Eva Trout epitomizes a search for home while exploring different physical and mental territories of belonging. Living in a boarding school, moving from a hotel to a hotel and eventually renting a house in Kent, Eva ceaselessly projects her fantasy and a primary need of identification onto different physical spaces and foster families. To her, living homeless is “Nothing but a deck of cards” and yet her diasporic existence seems to be the core of her identity. In the seminar we will look at the differences between the static and the dynamic representations of home and belonging, making a thorough analysis of the novel and the psychoanalytical tools that can help us delve into the importance and credibility of Home.