Susan Rubin Suleiman, a Harvard University professor of Romance and Comparative Literatures, last night recounted the difficulties of returning to her native city of Budapest, Hungary after living elsewhere for 34 years.
In a lecture titled "Can You Go Home Again? Reflections on Displacement and Return," Suleiman related the concepts of displacement, assimilation and return to the personal experiences she had when she returned to her birthplace in 1984.
Sixty people attended the presentation in Brace Commons.
Born in Budapest, Suleiman and her family, which is Jewish, immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1949 because of the lingering effects of the Holocaust and the advance of communism.
Once she settled in the U.S. as child, Suleiman said that she had no desire to return home until one day in 1983. "I suddenly looked at my [elderly and sick] mother playing with my children and I don't know why, but the thought crossed my mind -- I'm going to go back to Hungary."
Being neither stranger nor native afforded her greater insight than a stranger who does not speak the language or a native who is too connected to the country to see it clearly.
"This is the story, this is what has happened to me, I have integrated this place as home -- a home, not the home. In other words, I don't think that you ever can go home again," she said.
