Belonging

The present paper analyzes the conceptualization of contemporary forms of identity construction within the interrelation of diaspora, ethnicity, belonging, transnationality, translocationality, and interculturality. It casts critical light on the complex subjectivity by introducing the concept of translocational positionality addressed by intersectionality theory. Intersectionality is presented as an analytical tool which sets a far more integrated analysis of diaspora, the shifting devaluation of racialized, sexualized, classed, and gendered lives and factors which shape social locationality. Thereby, Floya Anthias' concept of translocational positionality is used to address the complex and intersectional frame of social locationalities of in-transit Arab women and to unravel issues pertain to identity in terms of the status of in-transit Arab women and their unstable positionality on America. Identifying and scrutinizing the complex process of self-inscription in Randa Jarrar and Laila Halaby's narratives: A Map of Home (2008) and West of Jordan (2003), the study revealed that when the sense of non-belonging to place conceived as home occurs, liberating vision for change, fluid positionality and transformation perceptibly emerge. The research concludes locations are particularly fluid and henceforth positionality, home and belonging are necessarily defined in relation to time, context and space and so susceptible to shifts, transformations and contradictions.

The present paper examines Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist (1974) in order to present a postcolonial reading of it in light of Homi K. Bhabha's ideas. It firstly discusses the significance of this novel and its narrative style, along with its context (Apartheid and the Zulu culture). Then it examines the central characters (Mehring and Jacobus) with the help of Bhabha's key concepts of hybridity and mimicry. The paper analyzes the relationship between the foreign white master, Mehring, and his native black servants, and underlines that the displaced colonial subjects (such as Jacobus) can, through mimicry, defy the oppression of imperial hegemony from within. In the text of Gordimer’s novel we can witness the formation of new cultural hybrids. It is characteristic of Gordimer’s fiction to reflect upon interactions between European and indigenous cultures. It is also argued that the funeral at the very end of the novel is in fact a transformation; for one, it brings about a change of focus and the readers shall end the novel bearing the memory of the black man in their minds. 

The present paper examines the ways in which short stories, "Who's Irish" by the Chinese-American writer Gish Jen and "Souvenirs" by the Sudanese-Egyptian writer Leila Aboulela re-imagine states of belonging and family relationships in postmigration contexts. To do so, the paper adopts a postmigrant research perspective to analyze familiar key concepts such as belonging, home, family and identity. The concept of postmigration emerged in theater in early 2000's and then found its place in academic research with the aim of addressing gaps in studies on migration and broadening the perspective on the complex phenomenon of migration and its transformative effects on both immigrants and the hosts (Anne Ring Petersen, Moritz Schramm, and Frauke Wiegand 2019: 3). The paper draws on theories such as those offered by Roger Bromely on concepts of belonging and ethnicity to argue that even though these stories predate the academic conceptualization of postmigration, they represent the ways in which ascribed identities are challenged and new belongings are created. The research questions address how narratives under investigation problematize confining concepts on ethnicity, the ways in which family ties and relationships are affected in postmigration contexts and what these new spaces of belonging are like. The study concludes that "Who's Irish" and "Souvenirs" depict postmigrant "spaces of plurality" (Bromley 2017:39) which are conflictual but transcultural and trans-ethnic too.