I am completing a PhD specializing in 20th Century Spanish Literature combined with Transatlantic Studies. I am interested in Spanish writers in exile who came here to America (US and Latin America) during Franco’s dictatorship and in Spanish women’s travel writing, written by women who came here for travelling or other reasons. These topics are dissimilar but they have something in common: both are manners of displacement, both are forms of being away from the place of origin, both are ways of crossing national borders, both imply an encounter with “the other” (other language, other culture) and both entail the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

One of my motivations to focus on that particular field was because I also consider myself a transatlantic product.  The first year I came to the United States was for working and studying because I got a grant. But after my first year, I decided to stay longer. First, because I like teaching and literature and I considered the American Doctoral system much more enriching than the system of my country. Secondly, I am also here because in my country I would not have the same opportunities that I enjoy here: universities have no funding, there are no jobs and the rate of unemployment is rising. Honestly, when some people ask me why I am here, I think more and more about the second reason I have just mentioned. Of course, I am not an exile as one of those writers I am interested in; I am not here due to political reasons and neither am I a woman traveller. However, considering some factors, I could say I am here because I could not live in my country doing what I want, which makes me think it over. There are a lot of people in my country of my generation who are unemployed and they cannot afford to pay for study anymore. They do not seem to  be obliged to run away from the country but they are spreading out to different places, working in whatever they find. Could they be considered immigrants? Or, is this a new era of young “exiled” people? Going abroad and travelling were a privilege which allowed us to enjoy unlimited freedom and more capacity for learning…now, it is different and displacements are part of our daily lives.

After taking this course, I can think about this situation in a different way. I could say that globalization creates a world in which borders are just lines on a map. Going through the contents we have studied, the topic I liked most was the study of transnationalism in exile, travel and migration. Also, these topics would help me to create stronger thoughts and hypothesis about space and displacement, which I am very particularly interested in for my future thesis or projects either in exile or women’s travels. I found very thought-provoking the ideas of “the place in between”, “non-places” and the discussions we had about belonging to a place, not belonging to a place and feeling part of it, and how all of these generates a way of rethinking identity. The limitations of the human in new places different from their places of origin are the “new borders” which lead me to think about the entity of the “hybrid” to redefine the phenomena of travel and displacement in the society of the past century and today. It also provides me a critical and theoretical framework for my future investigations as I would like to focus on spaces, travel and TransAtlantic theories for thinking about a new entity of the “traveller” and/or the “immigrant” and supporting my conclusions with particular examples.

To conclude, “Transnationalism” is a phenomenon that has always existed. From the time of the first travels to the New World to today, it  has been a factor of progress but also a factor very conditioned and manipulated economically and politically. It is difficult to establish a definition of it because this very complex term is determined by many aspects. But theories which enclose this term let us study “through” and to “the other side” of the frontiers. In this course, we have studied contemporary literature and cultural studies from a transnational perspective which make us think beyond the national to understand literature and culture from a more global, international and cosmopolitan perspective. This complements what I learned last semester in the course of “Landscapes, Provinces and Cities: Reflections on Space.” I had previously studied Kaplan’s theory of travel and displacement and I have a broader idea now that I could combine it with Kaplan and Grewal’s theory of “Global Identities and Sexuality” which would also help me to consolidate ideas in feminism as part of “women’s travel.”