Voices Emerging from the Border. A Reading of the Autobiographies by Najat El Hachmi and Saïd El Kadaoui as Political Interventions

Abstract

[eng] During the first decade of the 21^st century, Catalonia has experienced the emergence of a new literary corpus, namely that written by authors of Moroccan origin. Among them, Najat El Hachmi (Nador, 1979) and Saïd El Kadaoui (Beni Sidel, 1975) are the most prolific and have published both autobiographical and fictional works. On the one hand, El Hachmi published her autobiography <em>Jo també sóc catalana </em>in 2004 but it is in 2008 that her work would definitely attract media attention when she wins the Ramon Llull prize, the most important literary award in Catalan, for her novel <em>L’últim patriarca</em>. On the other hand, El Kadaoui’s debut occurred in 2008, when he published a novel in Spanish entitled <em>Límites y fronteras</em> whereas he would publish his autobiography <em>Cartes al meu fill. Un català de soca-rel gairebé</em> in 2011.</p><p>This article focuses on their autobiographies, which are addressed to their own children in an attempt of preventing them from the contradictions they have faced to define their own identities. For this purpose, they adopt an essayistic form rather than a conventional account of lived experiences that allows them to analyse their own position in relation to both Morocco and Catalonia, which they both locate at the border and consider their legacy for their children.</p>