French Literature Reviews - 2026

Aging in Exile
Comparative and World Literature

AGING IN EXILE

Studies compiled by Alain MONTANDON and Philippe PITAUD

Published with the support of the University of Provence and the Institute of Social Gerontology.

Stemming from a dialogue between literary scholars and sociologists, this collection also addresses the psychological dimensions of exile, which are most often traumatic. Rootlessness, whether voluntary or forced, can trigger an identity crisis resulting in altered perceptions of space and time, as well as shifts in values due to interculturality. To this, aging adds challenges inherently tied to a sense of irreversibility, which painfully exacerbates the distance and alienation from oneself.
Thus, "aging in exile is aging twice over." The dramatic nature and high relevance of this complex experience inspired these intersecting perspectives.

CRLMC Research Papers, July 2006
ISBN 2-84516-317-7, 214 pages, 15 Euros
Bookstore distribution: C.I.D.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MONTANDON Alain – Foreword.
PITAUD Philippe – Preface.
PITAUD Philippe – Elderly migrants: exile without a kingdom, between here and there.
FACCHINI Carla – Living between two belongings: the condition of Jews in Italy.
QUARESMA Maria de Lourdes – Aging as an emigrant, aging in exile: Reflections from a country of emigration at the turning point of immigration.
DUROUX Rose – Aging in exile, or the disengagement from history in the work of María Zambrano.
ANTUNES-MEYERFELD Regina Maria and FERREIRA CURY Maria Zilda – Exiled memories: the trajectory of an immigrant in Nélida Piñon's novel A república dos sonhos.
FARGES Patrick – Narrating a life in exile among German-speakers in Canada after 1933.
PIVERT Benoît – To see Jerusalem and die.
OKTAPODA-LU Efstratia – "In this country or the other, I have been a stranger." Alterity, myth, and globalization. Aging in exile: Mimika Kranaki and writers of the Greek diaspora.
MONTANDON Alain – Aging in exile: Shenaz Patel and Abla Farhoud. From the silence of the Chagos Islands and a slippery happiness.
MANZI Joaquín and TOUDOIRE-SURLAPIERRE Frédérique – Persistent strangers.
KOSSAIFI Christine – A delightful ordeal: Ovid's experience of old age in exile in the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto.
BRICAULT Céline – Aging in exile, or how not to age in Barbey d'Aurevilly's novels.
STEICIUC Elena-Brânduşa – A "twice sad" death: figures of Modianian exiles and their old age on foreign soil.
KOHN-PIREAUX Laurence – The fall of the angels: regarding The Satanic Verses.
LITSARDAKI Maria – "I grow old unhappily in a strange province": the imagery of exile in Joachim du Bellay.

The intersection of displacement and later life constitutes a complex terrain where sociological inquiry meets literary analysis. Scholars within the humanities frequently examine how geographical dislocation alters an individual's relationship with time, space, and cultural memory. By bringing together perspectives from different academic disciplines, collaborative volumes in this field often explore the multifaceted nature of rootlessness. Such studies frequently investigate how literary narratives and social realities intersect to articulate the profound challenges of growing old far from one's homeland.

Readers interested in interdisciplinary approaches to migration and ageing may find this collection relevant to their studies. The volume compiles contributions that address the psychological dimensions of exile, rootlessness, and the experience of growing old on foreign soil, drawing on both sociological research and literary texts ranging from classical antiquity to contemporary writing.