“When he saw me and my family, he didn’t even know how to speak, neither Prekmurje Slovenian nor English, he just stood there and watched.” On the History of Slovenian Emigration

This article discusses the narrative of a woman that experienced the loss of those close to her as a child because of migration, thereby shedding light on the part of the migration process referred to as the consequences and impact of emigration on the lives of the individuals that remain (in the home environment). This narrative is biographical in that the narrator recalls her cousin, but from the perspective of the narrator and the narrative it is equally autobiographical. Three groups of narratives that were important to the narrator are thematicized, thus more clearly expressing her consideration of the motives for migration, the encounter between two life worlds, and objects as symbols of identity.
KEY WORDS: (auto)biography, impact of emigration, motive for emigration, encounter between two realities, objects as symbols of identity