The event will be presented by Pedro Martínez-Avial, the General Director of Casa Árabe; Miguel Lucas, the director of the Centro Sefarad-Israel, and Michel Bertrand, the director of Casa Velázquez. It will be moderated by Abraham Bengio, the professor who chairs the department of Classical Letters and a member of the Maison d’Izieu Board of Trustees, as well as including presentations by writer Muhsin Al-Ramli; writer and journalist Pierre Assouline, and writer Antonio Muñoz Molina.

Transnationalism as a concept and focus proposes studying migratory phenomena on the basis of cross-border exchanges and relations between communities that go beyond just the national framework. These phenomena have a powerful impact on the societies of both origin and destination in every aspect, and on the construction of identity. This meeting held at Casa Árabe is precisely an attempt to clarify the role held by literature in constructing the identity of exiled communities, as is the case with the “pieds-noirs” and Sephardic Jews, whose paths in contemporary Spain have been marked by movement and the loss of territorial references. To study this, the organizers have invited the most important representatives from the world of contemporary literature whose works highlight the way in which existential questions about exile and nostalgia are dealt with.

This round table discussion forms part of the international colloquium “Transnational communities in contemporary Spain: Sephardic Jews and ‘Pieds-Noirs.’ Identities and their portrayals” (Centro Sefarad-Israel, February 8-9, 2018), organized jointly by Casa de Velázquez and Centro Sefarad-Israel.