Glocalisation and linguistic variation in the literature of Spanish-American writers in Spain

1. Glocalisation and linguistic variation in the literature of Spanish-American writers in Spain Fernando Iwasaki’sEspaña, aparta de mi estospremios

2. Spain: from country of emigration to country of immigration • Mass immigration in Spain fairly recent phenomenon (1990-) • History of emigration (America, Europe) • 3 main origins of immigrants: • (North-)Africa • Eastern Europe • Spanish America (Multi)lingualinterventionsGhentUniversity 18-19 November 2009

3. Spanish American immigrants in Spain • share language and religion with the host country • are (more) familiar with cultural practices of the host country • « pre-migratory socialisation » (Lucassen) • colonial legacy (language, religion, music, etc.) • inter-hispanic migrations in 19th and 20th C (exile / economic migration) • transcontinental mass media (Multi)lingualinterventionsGhentUniversity 18-19 November 2009

4. Integration of Spanish-American immigrants • Compared to other immigrants, Spanish-American immigrants show highest rates of both ‘identificational’ and ‘structural’ integration’ (Lucassen) DíezNicolás 2005: • Latin American immigrants are more valued by the Spanish population than other immigrants Cf. ChemaCastiello on representation of immigrants in Spanish cinema (vs East-European and African):Latin American immigrant is male or female; dynamic and cheerful; part of a mixed couple; interacts with Spaniards; shares signs of identity; little reference to cultural difference except for sexual stereotypes • Latin American immigrants show highest rate of ‘objetive integration’ Variables in decreasing order of importance: • Level of education • Age • Religion • Compared to host society? • Differences within the community (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

5. Spanish-American writers in Spain: immigrants or expatriates? • Immigrant vs expatriate • Both voluntary, long term displacements • Motivation • Socio-economical status • Scholarity • Ethnic origin • Cf. Santiago Roncagliolo, « Los que son de aquí » • Reflection on the possibility of a literature common to immigrants in Spain, to people “who are not from here” • Hispanic migrant literature vs British migrant literatureBritish literature: 3 generations: • Salman Rushdie: conscience of being ‘from elsewhere’; have acquired ‘European gaze’ • HanifKureishi: second generation; born in England; his protagonists are ‘English’ • Zadie Smith: multicultural novel • Hispanic world has no equivalents of Kureishi or Smith: • contemporary Spanish-American authors celebrate cosmopolitism as literary renovation • their work contains no references to Latin America or the experience of migration “Their cultural figure is that of Rushdie, not Zadie Smith” (Multi)lingualinterventionsGhentUniversity 18-19 November 2009

6. Spanish as commonlanguage • Common language is considered to be the main motive for migration, exile and intellectual mobility between Spain and Spanish-America in the 20th Century • Spanish republican exiles continue their careers in Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico… • Spanish-American ‘boom’ novels published in Spain (Seix-Barral) • Also today, many Spanish-American authors publish their work in Spain BUT • How common is the language really? • Creative vs academic writing • Regional and national identities (Multi)lingualinterventionsGhentUniversity 18-19 November 2009

7. In whichSpanish do migrants write? • Saíttaon Argentine authors abroad • Starting point: intralingual bilingualism of Argentine literature • Cf. Pascale Casanova: peripherical writers develop a new, different language-within-the-language • ‘entonación’, ‘tonalidad’ • ‘In between’: these texts differ from the national literature of both the country of origin of the author and the host country • 5 different attitudes with regard to cultural and linguistic difference • adopting ‘strangeness’ as identity: writing in ‘Argentinian’ • swapping ‘Argentinian’ for ‘Latin American’: continental language (dubbing) • ‘bilingualism’ and translating (glossary, explanations) • abandoning the ‘strangeness ’: writing in (peninsular) Spanish • abandoning referentiality: linguistic estrangement (Multi)lingualinterventionsGhentUniversity 18-19 November 2009

8. Language variation and identity in Fernando Iwasaki’sEspaña, aparta de míestospremios • Iwasaki combines several of Saítta’s 5 strategies • Referential frame = Spanish • Language alternates between a ‘neutral’, non-marked Spanish and interventions in variants of Spanish and other languages : • Intralingual Spanish variation (Andalusian) • Interlingual ‘peninsular’ variation (Catalan, Basque/euskera) • Interlingual ‘European’ variation (English, French, German, Italian) • Interlingual ‘global’ variation: Japanese (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

9. Fernando Iwasaki • 1961, Lima • Peruvian, Japanese and Italiandescent • Lives in Sevilla since 1985 • Historian (colonial history) • Essay and narrative prose • Works: • Republicanos, cuandodejamos de serrealistas (essay, 2008) • España, aparta de míestospremios (short stories, 2009) (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

10. España, aparta de míestospremios • « Spain, let these prizes pass from me » • ‘Novel of stories’ : 7 short stories presented for literary contests in Spain • Variants (‘clones’) of the same story • Cf. ‘Decalogue of the customary competitor (who is probably from overseas)’: « III. Write one story which is like a ‘stem cell’ you can clone for each contest » • ‘stem cell’ plot: the appearance of a ‘hidden’ Japanese migrant in Spain causes mass hysteria and ‘nippophilia’ • Narration and focalisation • Humour: satire, irony, parody • Media (tv, best seller literature) • Cultural identity • Cocktail of global and local identities • Japanese, Basque, Andalusian • No Spanish American characters; no recent migrants • Paratext (author’s preface/decalogue): suggests Latin American author writing for a Spanish readership (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

11. España, aparta de míestospremios (2) • “Why can’t a narrator from Nicaragua or Paraguay write a story set in Hornachuelos or Quintanilla de Onésimo? Isn’t it the same whether you write about escudella or marmitako? A lot of chroniclers of the 15th and 16th century perpetrated unbelievable stories about the New World without ever leaving Spain, just changing Incas for Aztecs. (…) Now it’s our turn, but with a smaller margin of error, as we can count on Google, YouTube, cable television and over a million portal sites which contain the most raving information on towns, folklore, politics, gossip, football and gastronomy, so you can rewrite the history of Spain without moving from Chumbivilcas or Aguapepito.” [all translations are mine] • “I write for the Spain who can laugh at herself” (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

12. Glocalisation • Robertson (in Pohl & Türschmann 2007:18) parellelly coexisting, and only apparently contradictory processes of globalisation and localisation  • < economy • 2 mechanisms of ‘localisation’ as commercial strategy: • global structures create (‘invent’) and incorporate locality • global brand (quality, strenght) + local identity (authenticity) • hyperbolic affirmation of local identity in a competitive, transnational context • accentuating difference • (ironic) use of stereotypes (Multi)lingualinterventionsGhentUniversity 18-19 November 2009

13. Ironising cultural stereotypes • Iwasaki derides the celebration of local identities in Spain by • the ironic use of stereotypes (flamenco, martial arts, Basque cuisine) • constrasting (and fusing) peninsular stereotypes with exotic stereotypes (Japan) • Stereotypes in España, … • visual: attributes (ikarriña, hachimaki, kimono, sword,…) • cultural • folklore (flamenco, pelotari, chefs, jesuits, samurai, florists,…) • « national character » or psychological predisposition(Leerssen) : Basque harshness, Japanese healthiness and code of honour, Andalusian vivacity and lack of organisation • linguistic • ‘globalized’ lexicon • manga, sushi, samurai, harakiri, karaoke, bonsai • marmitako, pintxo, ikastola, Lehendakari • prime time, rating, pay per view, performance (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

14. Ironising cultural stereotypes (2) • Bivalence of stereotypes (Amossy) • pre-existing mental schemes make communication possible • reduction of difference/the Other • Ironic use (or mention) of cultural stereotypes by mock-affirmation (Leerssen, lecture): • subversion of the stereotype by accumulation • What comes after irony? • Iwasaki: mock-affirmation leads to annihilation of difference, interchangeability of stereotypes/identities • flamenco listed as Japanese culture together with manga and karaoke • AhitoriTsurunaga: Japanese Basque, descendent of Jesuit padre Urrunaga • undifferentiated view of the Other: Japanese characters are taken for Chinese, Gipsy, Galician or ‘Corian’ • interchangeability of language (Japanese and euskera): “hachimakirojo y gerrikoazul al viento” (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

15. Counteringirony • Does this mean communication about identity is no longer possible? • Counterstrategies to irony: • poetics of the implausability of reality • « IX. No permitas que la coherencia de la ficción te impidanarrar la esperpénticarealidad » • Coriadel Río, sirnameJapón, Japanesechain of Basque restaurants,… • historical perspective on globalisation • Japanese ‘embassy’ in 17th C Spain • Basque Jesuits in Japan, kirishitancommunity • cultural relation Spain/Spanish-Americais not ironised • paratexts as well as the novelitselfillustratesuccesful communication between a Spanish-American narrator and Spanishreaders (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

16. Conclusion • Intercultural relation Spain/Spanish America is set within but textually marginalised from other ‘glocal’ intercultural relations • Cultural differences are derided and subverted by a strategy of excess of stereotypes BUT • This strategy is only applied to local/regional and ‘exotic’ identities, creating a ‘middle ground’ in which a Spanish-American author can communicate unproblematically with his Spanish readers • paradoxical re-entry of the concept of cultural difference • Iwasaki as an integrated migrant writer (cf. Kureishi) • cf. patria vs ‘la tierra de los hijos’ [filia] • “que un latinoamericanohablecatalán no tiene el mismoméritoque un japonés” (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009

17. Bibliography • Castiello, Chema. « La construccióncinematográficadelinmigrante ». In Bañós, Antonio M. & Javier Fornieles (eds). Manual sobre comunicación e inmigración .Donostia/San Sebastián, Tercera Prensa, 2008, 327-350. • Díez Nicolas, Juan. 2005. Las dos caras de la inmigración. Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, IMSERSO. • Iwasaki, Fernando. 2009. España, aparta de mí estos premios. Madrid: Páginas de Espuma. • Lucassen , Leo. 2005. The Immigrant Threat. The integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe since 1850. Chicago: Urbana. • Pohl, Burkhard & Jörg Türschmann (eds). 2007. Miradasglocales.Cineespañol en el cambio de milenio. Vervuert: Iberoamericana. • Roncagliolo, Santiago. 2006. “ Los que son de aquí. Literatura e inmigración en la España del siglo XXI”. Quórum, 19, 150-167. • Saítta, Sylvia. 2007. « Cruzando la frontera: la literaturaargentina entre exilios y migraciones ». Hispamérica 36:106, 23-35. (Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009