El viaje y el redescubrimiento de la identidad sefardí en la poesía de Margalit Matitiahu

Abstrakt

Journey and rediscovery of Sephardic identityin Margalit Matitiahu’s poetry

This paper concerns the Judeo-Spanish poetry written by an Israeli author Margalit Matitiahu. The aim is to present the motif of journey as a means of rediscovering the family roots of the poet and her Sephardic identity. Thus, in her output, two groups of poems with journey as the main subject may be distinguished. One is devoted to her visits to Greek towns and cities connected with the Jewish past. In these poems, she reflects on her experiences drawing on her encountering the recent past of her family. Another group of poems comprises her emotions and impressions from her travel across Spain, the old land of Sephardim, where vestiges of their distant history can be found. In Spain, Matitiahu also recognizes some familiar elements, which proved to be another part of her identity. Journeys to the lands related to the history of Sephardic Diaspora are to her the occasions to ponder over past time, to reflect on the depths of her roots as well as to rediscover her identity.