Postcolonialism and the Diasporic Imaginary

Abstract

This chapter pursues three main tasks: an interrogation of the assumption of the nation-state as the privileged horizon for literary history; an evaluation of the implications of the vast range of voluntary and enforced movements of populations that have taken place in world history for their impact on the imagination and all its products; and the exploration of a multidisciplinary model for interpreting literary texts in full view of their grounding in the recursive mobilities of the present time. This chapter pursues these tasks from a combined postcolonial and diaspora studies perspective, starting with an elaboration of some of their overlaps and differences and then turning to the question of the diasporic imaginary. It goes on to a undertake an elaborate inventory of elements pertinent to the diasporic imaginary, including place, nostalgia, and genealogical accounting.

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