Anne Reynes-Delobel is a Senior Lecturer at Aix-Marseille University (AMU). She is a member of LERMA EA 850 (Laboratoire d’études et de recherche sur le monde anglophone). Her research interests include transatlantic modernism and European avant-garde and modernist movements. She is currently serving as the President of the Kay Boyle Society (an MLA and SSAWW affiliate).
This article examines the treatment of voice in Kay Boyle’s short-story “The Lost” (1951) in connection with the “displaced children question” in postwar Europe. The aim is to demonstrate how voice introduces a form of negativity in the text so as to underline the complexities of postwar European reconstruction politics. As a marker and an operator of marginality and displacement, voice problematizes the notions of “origin” and “belonging,” which allows for an embedding of the consequences of identity politics both abroad and at home.