According to the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, he appreciates “something in-between” - “I like to find something in-between, and every kind of definition has an in-between space. Especially if the definitions are two opposites, then the in-between space is more rich”. Indeed, this kind of “in-between space” doesn’t only exist between nature and architecture or between inside and outside, but also, it exists as a narrative space for the Dominican-American writer Julia Alvarez. In this paper, I would like to elaborate on the term, the “in-between space”, which was brought up by Kelli Lyon Johnson in her article “Both Sides of the Massacre: Collective Memory and Narrative on Hispaniola”; I will also discuss how Julia Alvarez utilizes the “in-between
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Through examining the work of Julia Alvarez, Weiser argues that Alvarez engages with a less radical form of the hidden archivist in her In the Time of the Butterflies, which challenges typical classifications of a literature genre, since the text doesn’t involve a linear-chronological plot (Weiser). Besides, Alvarez enables the hidden archivist narrator to take the responsibility of reconstructing by “the self-reflexive process”. Here, a strong connection can be made between Weiser’s thought and that of Steve Criniti in his essay “Collecting Butterflies: Julia Alvarez's Revision of North American Collective Memory”, in which Crinti asserts that Alvarez combines fiction with history in her reconstruction of women’s lives, reconnecting women to the collective memory (Criniti). Moreover, in Barash Jeffrey Andrew’s “Collective memory and the historical past”, Barash believes that Alvarez directs us, not to the historical accuracy of her accounts but to the power of “a certain sensation, a far-off, enigmatic memory” (Barash 10). According to Barash, this memory, based on the unknown and reconstructed from the possible past, affects the way Dominicans and Dominican Americans remember and imagine themselves, both in the present and for the future; this memory is especially evident in her rewriting of the history of the Mirabal sisters, three women who were murdered during the Trujillo years who have consequently become national heroines of mythic proportion (a fourth sister survived) (Barash 12). As with the story of Salomé, in In the Time of the Butterflies Alvarez does not have enough exact detail to recount their stories: “What you will find here are the Mirabals of my creation, made up but, I hope, true to the spirit of the real Mirabals”. Albeit that Alvarez had researched the facts of the regime, and events pertaining to
Through examining the work of Julia Alvarez, Weiser argues that Alvarez engages with a less radical form of the hidden archivist in her In the Time of the Butterflies, which challenges typical classifications of a literature genre, since the text doesn’t involve a linear-chronological plot (Weiser). Besides, Alvarez enables the hidden archivist narrator to take the responsibility of reconstructing by “the self-reflexive process”. Here, a strong connection can be made between Weiser’s thought and that of Steve Criniti in his essay “Collecting Butterflies: Julia Alvarez's Revision of North American Collective Memory”, in which Crinti asserts that Alvarez combines fiction with history in her reconstruction of women’s lives, reconnecting women to the collective memory (Criniti). Moreover, in Barash Jeffrey Andrew’s “Collective memory and the historical past”, Barash believes that Alvarez directs us, not to the historical accuracy of her accounts but to the power of “a certain sensation, a far-off, enigmatic memory” (Barash 10). According to Barash, this memory, based on the unknown and reconstructed from the possible past, affects the way Dominicans and Dominican Americans remember and imagine themselves, both in the present and for the future; this memory is especially evident in her rewriting of the history of the Mirabal sisters, three women who were murdered during the Trujillo years who have consequently become national heroines of mythic proportion (a fourth sister survived) (Barash 12). As with the story of Salomé, in In the Time of the Butterflies Alvarez does not have enough exact detail to recount their stories: “What you will find here are the Mirabals of my creation, made up but, I hope, true to the spirit of the real Mirabals”. Albeit that Alvarez had researched the facts of the regime, and events pertaining to