GLOCALISATION AND LINGUISTIC VARIATION
IN THE LITERATURE OF SPANISH-AMERICAN
WRITERS IN SPAIN
Fernando Iwasaki’s España, aparta de mi estos
premios
Spain: from country of emigration to country of
immigration
2
 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)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Spanish American immigrants in Spain
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 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)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Integration of Spanish-American immigrants
4

Compared to other immigrants, Spanish-American immigrants show
highest rates of both ‘identificational’ and ‘structural’ integration’
(Lucassen)
Díez Nicolás 2005:

Latin American immigrants are more valued by the Spanish population than other
immigrants
Cf. Chema Castiello 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
Spanish-American writers in Spain:
immigrants or expatriates?
5

Immigrant vs expatriate

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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 literature
British literature: 3 generations:




Salman Rushdie: conscience of being ‘from elsewhere’; have acquired ‘European gaze’
Hanif Kureishi: 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)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Spanish as common language
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
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)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
In which Spanish do migrants write?
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
Saítta on 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

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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)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Language variation and identity in Fernando
Iwasaki’s España, aparta de mí estos premios
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
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
Fernando Iwasaki
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1961, Lima
Peruvian, Japanese and Italian descent
Lives in Sevilla since 1985
Historian (colonial history)
Essay and narrative prose
Works:
Republicanos, cuando dejamos de ser realistas (essay,
2008)
 España, aparta de mí estos premios (short stories, 2009)

(Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
España, aparta de mí estos premios
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
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« 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

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
‘stem cell’ plot: the appearance of a ‘hidden’ Japanese migrant in Spain causes
mass hysteria and ‘nippophilia’
Narration and focalisation
Humour: satire, irony, parody



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 »
Media (tv, best seller literature)
Cultural identity
Cocktail of global and local identities

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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
España, aparta de mí estos premios (2)
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
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“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
Glocalisation
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
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)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Ironising cultural stereotypes
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
Iwasaki derides the celebration of local identities in Spain by

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the ironic use of stereotypes (flamenco, martial arts, Basque cuisine)
constrasting (and fusing) peninsular stereotypes with exotic stereotypes (Japan)
Stereotypes in España, …

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visual: attributes (ikarriña, hachimaki, kimono, sword,…)
cultural

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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
Ironising cultural stereotypes (2)
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Bivalence of stereotypes (Amossy)
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Ironic use (or mention) of cultural stereotypes by mock-affirmation (Leerssen,
lecture):

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pre-existing mental schemes make communication possible
reduction of difference/the Other
subversion of the stereotype by accumulation
What comes after irony?
Iwasaki: mock-affirmation leads to annihilation of difference,
interchangeability of stereotypes/identities

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flamenco listed as Japanese culture together with manga and karaoke
Ahitori Tsurunaga: 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): “hachimaki rojo y
gerriko azul al viento”
(Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Countering irony
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
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Does this mean communication about identity is no longer
possible?
Counterstrategies to irony:

poetics of the implausability of reality

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
historical perspective on globalisation

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« IX. No permitas que la coherencia de la ficción te impida narrar la
esperpéntica realidad »
Coria del Río, sirname Japón, Japanese chain of Basque
restaurants,…
Japanese ‘embassy’ in 17th C Spain
Basque Jesuits in Japan, kirishitan community
cultural relation Spain/Spanish-America is not ironised

paratexts as well as the novel itself illustrate succesful communication
between a Spanish-American narrator and Spanish readers
(Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Conclusion
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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


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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 latinoamericano hable catalán no tiene el mismo mérito que un japonés”
(Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009
Bibliography
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Castiello, Chema. « La construcción cinematográfica del inmigrante ». 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. Miradas glocales.Cine
español 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 literatura argentina entre
exilios y migraciones ». Hispamérica 36:106, 23-35.
(Multi)lingual interventions Ghent University 18-19 November 2009