The functionality of dream reality in an emigrant text

Abstract

(E)migration as a kind of initiation stage in the fate of an emigrant, when one’s life seems to start from scratch, typologically defines an emigrant text as a structure of incorporation into the social layers of a new society. This process happens mostly unconsciously and is characterized by certain typological markers, such as reference to mythological and folkloric sources, pretexts from home and world culture, stylizations, carnival, parodies, etc. In this sense, a collection by Ilya Lipkovich, Stan Lipovetsky and Igor Mandel titled “Morpheus and Orpheus. Both Dreams and Spirits: Eyewitness Dreams and Poet’s Commentary” is a model of emigrant writing, broadcasting archetypal conventional imagery systems and allowing a reader to survive the traumatic situation of the still incomplete transition.