Resumen de Dislocated Temporalities: Immigration, Sexuality, and Violence in Najat El Hachmi’s L’últim patriarca
Recent Catalan criticism has focused on place and space, but has overlookedtemporality. Yet migrations are not only a matter of space, but also of time: immigrationquestions the idea of origins and the possibility of a shared future. Temporality, in fact,is a key axis in the formation of identities and in cultural conflicts, also in relation to thenormative uses of the body. The coexistence of asynchronous temporalities provokedby immigration is a factor in both cultural and psychic conflict. Najat El Hachmi’s novelL’últim patriarca (2008) is an excellent example of these phenomena. Through a dialoguewith the Catalan literary tradition and a focus on the shattering effects of anal sexuality,the novel problematizes biological reproduction and gender subordination, and challenges patriarchal temporality, understood as a succession of generations. This essayoffers an integrated analysis of these issues by reference to psychoanalysis.
