Symbolism 14 : : [Special Focus – Symbols of Diaspora] / / ed. by Rüdiger Ahrens, Klaus Stierstorfer.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2015 Part 1
• HerausgeberIn: Ahrens, Rüdiger,; Stierstorfer, Klaus,
• MitwirkendeR: Drnovšek Zorko, Špela,; Hennigfeld, Ursula,; Kläger, Florian,; Knor, Sarah,; Morgan, Holly,; Patchett, Emma,; Puschmann-Nalenz, Barbara,; Quabeck, Franziska,; Rascanu, Iulia,; Sandiford, Keith,; Swaby, Nydia A.,; Tronicke, Marlena,; Wattenbarger, Melanie R.,; Windt, Leonie,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2014]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Symbolism : An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics , 14
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (294 p.)

Symbolic representation is a crucial subject for and a potent heuristic instrument of diaspora studies. This special focus inquires into the forms and functions of symbols of diaspora both in aesthetic practice and in critical discourse, analyzing and theorizing symbols from Shakespeare to Bollywood as well as in critical writings of theorists of diaspora. What kinds of symbols and symbolic practices, contributors ask, are germane to the representation, both emic and etic, of diasporics and diasporas? How are specific symbols and symbolic practices analyzed across the academic fields contributing to diaspora studies? Which symbols and symbolic practices inform the academic study of diasporas, sometimes unconsciously or without being remarked on? To study these phenomena is to engage in a dialogue that aims at refining the theoretical and methodological vocabulary and practice of truly transdisciplinary diaspora studies while attending to the imperative of specificity that inheres in this emerging field. The volume collects a range of analyses from social anthropology, history and ethnography to literary and film studies, all combining readings of individual symbolic practices with meta-theoretical reflections.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Foreword from the Editors -- Contents -- Special Focus: Symbols of Diaspora -- Introduction: Symbols of Diaspora -- Tied to the Land: A Semiotic Challenging of Terms Concerning Land as Used in Diaspora Discourse -- Diasporic Memory and Narratives of Spatiotemporality -- Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Political Aesthetics of Diasporic Social Spaces in London -- The Symbolism of Emplacement and Displacement in Sudanese British Fiction by Tayeb Salih and Leila Aboulela -- Ain’t I a Woman? A Mother? A Nation? ‘Woman’ and ‘Nation’ in Pre- and Post- Independence India -- Christmas in the Diaspora: Dislocating Symbols in Kipling, Cary and Dabydeen -- Two Stone Lions: Law, Home, and Diasporic Sovereignty -- Oddity Magnified: In Search of Identity in Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans -- Writing Her Own Story: Acculturation, Metatextuality and Symbolizing Queerness in Shamim Sarif’s I Can’t Think Straight -- ‘A Bootless Inquisition?’ Searching for Imaginary Homelands in The Tempest -- General Section -- Discourses of Terror in French and Spanish Novels after 9/11 -- William Earle’s Novella: Obi, Obeah and the Ideological Work of Haunting -- A Great Good Place or Ghastly Pile? Representations of the English Country House in Recent British Fiction: Metamorphosis of a Literary Motif -- Book Reviews -- Contributors -- Index