Diaspora and Literary Studies

Diaspora is an ancient term that gained broad new significance in the twentieth century. At its simplest diaspora refers to the geographic dispersion of a people from a common originary space to other sites. It pulls together ideas of people movement memory and home but also troubles them. In this volume established and newer scholars provide fresh explorations of diaspora for twenty-first century literary studies. The volume re-examines major diaspora origin stories theorizes diaspora through its conceptual intimacies and entanglements and analyzes literary and visual-cultural texts to reimagine the genres genders and genealogies of diaspora. Literary mappings move across Africa the Americas Middle East Asia Europe and Pacific Islands and through Atlantic Pacific Mediterranean Gulf and Indian waters. Chapters reflect on diaspora as a key concept for migration postcolonial global comparative race environmental gender and queer studies. The volume is thus an accessible and provocative account of diaspora as a vital resource for literary studies in a bordered world.