Introduction: Theorizing Postcolonial Diasporas

Abstract

Diaspora has become an increasingly ‘diasporic’ concept within postcolonial studies during the past decade. The term once referred specifically to the dispersal of the Jews, but within contemporary cultural analysis the term is now more likely to evoke a plethora of global movements and migrations: Romanian, African, Asian, black, Sikh, Irish, Lebanese, Palestinian, ‘Atlantic’ and so on. A corresponding expansion of diaspora’s conceptual horizons has also taken place in recent years, since it has evolved to operate as a travelling metaphor associated with tropes of mobility, displacement, borders and crossings (Procter 2003: 13). This edited collection reflects critically on the specific significance of what we have termed ‘postcolonial diasporas’, drawing together the parallel and equally contested fields of postcolonial studies and diaspora studies at a time when the horizons opened up by these research areas appear more stretched and hazy than ever before. Bringing together a group of leading and emerging intellectuals working across the disciplines of cultural studies, history, literary analysis, modern languages, sociology and visual studies, it examines both the contributions and limitations of the terms ‘postcolonial’ and ‘diaspora’, and the problems and possibilities they present for future work in the humanities.