Colloque

Mémoire, identité et transnationalité dans la culture contemporaine espagnole

Jordan Tronsgard

Membre a labase

Jordan Tronsgard

Résumé de la communication

Issues of migration and identity are a constant in today’s globalized world, particularly for developed nations that have become attractive destinations due to their economic and political stability for those crossing borders. Unlike Canada, Spain is not a country with a modern tradition of immigration, having been an emigrant nation under the Francisco Franco dictatorship (1939-1975) and seeing a significant reverse in that dynamic only as recently as the 2000s. Indeed, in less than twenty years Spain’s foreign-born population has gone from negligible to twelve percent, prompting questions of what “Spanishness” means for such an increasingly transnational population. Memory is collective and selective, creating narratives that shape how individuals and communities work through and express their identities in the present and looking forward. In this paper I intend to explore the theme of national identity in works of contemporary Spanish narrative fiction and film by focusing on how memory frames this process of negotiation. In particular, I study the juxtaposition of historical memory of the Spanish Civil War/Franco dictatorship as a shared cultural experience against the memories of “new Spaniards” for whom this national trauma holds no direct connection. If memory is collective and informs identity, then what happens when the collective changes?

Résumé du colloque

Le 11 mai en soirée, le documentaire "Les Fros" (ONF, 2010) sera présenté. La réalisatrice, Stéphanie Lanthier, sera présente et fera une brève allocution pour présenter son film et répondra aux questions du public après le visionnement. Le 12 mai en soirée aura lieu le vernissage de l’exposition « Projet Stanstead ou comment traverser la frontière » à la galerie d’art Foreman de Bishop’s. L'événement est une collaboration entre la galerie et notre colloque. Le grand public, les chercheurs présents au colloque et les artistes pourront échanger lors de ce cocktail-vernissage.