NAJAT EL HACHMI, JO TAMBÉ SOC CATALANA: AUTOBIOGRAFÍAS DE IDENTIDADES

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to focus on the autobiographical text by Najat
El Hachmi, Jo també soc catalana, and to analyse the self representation
tale she makes in this work. The author, migrated from Morocco to the
industrialized Catalan area of Spain during the 70’s, describes the difficult
process of identity reconstruction after the departure from Nador, passing
through the hard adaptation in the Spanish community. In this intimate
tale dedicated and addressed to the son, the logic of the struggle between
identities, held by the native and European society, is substituted by an
osmotic perspective of the concept of ‘identity’, a hybrid, heterogeneous
and changeable construction that hardly can fit in the strict labels of Nation,
ethnicity or religion. Through out the use of Catalan language El
Hachmi offers a deep analysis of the contemporary western society from
liminal perspective of the first generation of immigrants.

Keywords

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