Diaspora, Memory, and Identity: A Search for Home - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802093744 ISBN 13: 9780802093745

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2005

Synopsis

Memories establish a connection between a collective and individual past, between origins, heritage, and history. Those who have left their places of birth to make homes elsewhere are familiar with the question, "Where do you come from?" and respond in innumerable well-rehearsed ways. Diasporas construct racialized, sexualized, gendered, and oppositional subjectivities and shape the cosmopolitan intellectual commitment of scholars. The diasporic individual often has a double consciousness, a privileged knowledge and perspective that is consonant with postmodernity and globalization.

The essays in this volume reflect on the movements of people and cultures in the present day, when physical, social, and mental borders and boundaries are being challenged and sometimes successfully dismantled. The contributors - from a variety of disciplinary perspectives - discuss the diasporic experiences of ethnic and racial groups living in Canada from their perspective, including the experiences of South Asians, Iranians, West Indians, Chinese, and Eritreans. Diaspora, Memory, and Identity is an exciting and innovative collection of essays that examines the nuanced development of theories of Diaspora, subjectivity, double-consciousness, gender and class experiences, and the nature of home.

About this title

About the Author

Vijay Agnew is a professor in the Division of Social Science at York University, and was the director of the Center for Feminist Research from 2001 to 2006.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802093744
• ISBN 13: 9780802093745
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260
• Editor: Agnew Vijay