Literatura y exilio: desarraigo, refugiados y la ambigüedad de la memoria en el sur de Europa

ABSTRACT In February 2017, the most massive demonstration in favor of refugees took place in Barcelona with the motto Refugees welcome! Yet, since then migration policies have become more restrictive under the influence of neofascist movements. How are we to cope with this social polarization? How are we to overcome the moral paralysis of Southern Europe regarding refugee policies? Since language creates reality, this article will examine the vagueness of words used to describe the different fluxes of forced mobility. Etymological analysis reveals how the use of terminology has been politicized up to the point of inhibiting any possible collective reaction. Following these considerations, the phenomenology of exile developed by philosophers and writers such as Josep Solanes and María Zambrano is recovered. The article proposes the articulation of a memory of exile as an ethical imperative for Europe, a continent of former settlers, outcasts, exiled and refugees.