With a focus on Zoë Wicomb’s novel, October (2014) – the title signalling an ‘aesthetic’ elevation of the events of a journey home – I explore the trope of the ‘home visit’ as a catalytic moment of insight into the protagonist’s dislocated life. In October, the syntagmatic chain of events (the plot) yields a paradigmatic resonance: the transitional month of the year embodying the tenuousness of a temporary homecoming. I draw on the concept of ‘home visit’ from the fields of mobility and destination studies, where it indicates a recently established research niche, variously referred to as “personal memory tourism” (Marschall 2017) or “visiting home and familiar places” (Pearce 2012). The object of such investigation concerns the temporary home visit by first-generation migrants, as triggered by both sensory experiences and cognitive processes of searching for personal redefinitions of what it means to be at home in a place. I draw also on Heidegger’s reflections on the concept of home beyond conventional understanding: home as conceptual “dwelling” and as a process of “home-making” (2001 [1954]).

中文翻译：

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在破碎的连贯中反映怀旧之情：佐伊·威科姆十月的“家访”

关注佐伊·威科姆 (Zoë Wicomb) 的小说《十月》（2014 年）——标题标志着回家旅程中事件的“审美”提升——我探索了“家访”的比喻，作为洞察主角错位生活的催化时刻. 十月，事件的组合链（情节）产生了典型的共鸣：一年中的过渡月份体现了暂时回家的脆弱。我借鉴了流动性和目的地研究领域中“家访”的概念，它表明了最近建立的研究领域，也被称为“个人记忆旅游”（Marschall 2017）或“访问家庭和熟悉的地方”（皮尔斯 2012）。调查对象为第一代农民工临时家访，由感官体验和认知过程触发，以寻求个人重新定义在家中的意义。我还借鉴了海德格尔对超越传统理解的家概念的反思：家作为概念上的“住所”和“家庭制作”的过程（2001 [1954]）。