Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla

Biography

Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla has been an associate professor of Arabic language and literature at University Autónoma of Madrid since 2006, and director of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies since 2016. He is the author of a history of modern Moroccan literature, La literatura marroquí contemporánea. He is also the director of Memorias del Mediterráneo, a series of Works of Arabic literature published in Spanish translation by Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo, and he has translated from Arabic into Spanish the works of Moroccan writers such as Abdallah Laroui and Rachid Nini. In 2012, he served as a judge for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Abstract

From Indigenous to Catalan (Is it possible?): Shifting paradigms of identity in the Spanish postcolonial context

It is well known that Morocco generated an important postcolonial literature in French. Authors such as Tahar Ben Jelloun won prestigious literary awards, and their merits are recognized both in Morocco and France. Though less known, Morocco also produced a postcolonial literature in Spanish. However, Hispanophone Maghribi authors have not yet been able to make inroads into the Spanish literary scene and academia. The only author to overcome this situation of marginality has been Najat El Hachmi, a diasporic Moroccan-Amazigh author writing in Catalan. In 2008 she won the prestigious Ramon Llul literature award with L’ultim patriarca (The Last Patriarch), a true turning point to this situation. Since her first book, Jo també sóc catalana (I Am Catalan Too), El Hachmi has been asking important questions: When does a migrant stop being an immigrant? And, how long does it take to leave behind colonial indigeneity to become indigenous (meaning local)?