What is it like to grow up between cultures? Across Europe, a new generation emerges with this very experience, having to, for better or worse, learn how to navigate incompatible demands and expectations.
In the novel El lunes nos querrán (On Monday They Will Love US), Moroccan-Spanish writer Najat El Hachmi tells the story of a girl growing up in a suburb outside Barcelona. El Hachmi shows how the incompatible demands of the girl’s family and that of the larger Spanish society seeps into the young narrator. When her parents ban her from jogging, for instance, while the act is lauded in a body-fixated Spanish society, then what does the act of tying once sneakers really entail? Revolt or adaptation? How can you truly see yourself when you are constantly shaped by the gaze of others?
Najat El Hachmi is of Berber heritage in Morocco and grew up in Spain, where she has won a number of awards for her writing. Her 2004 debut Jo també sóc catalana (I am also Catalan) deals with her and her family’s experiences of moving to a new country. El lunes nos querrán is her sixth publication. El Hachmi is a columnist in the newspaper El País, and a fearless social critic.
At the House of Literature, she is joined by Nancy Herz, sociologist, former undersecretary and author of the books Skamløs (Shameless) and Skal du ikke gifte deg snart? (Aren’t you getting married soon?). She joins El Hachmi for a conversation about shame and shamelessness, migration, beauty and growing up between cultures.
The conversation will be in English, and is supported by NORAD.
