Diaspora and the Politics of Difference and Sameness



Author Information

Suk Koo Rhee, Yonsei University, South Korea

Abstract

Diaspora has established itself as one of the major topics in the literary and cultural studies of the twenty-first century. What is conspicuous about contemporary studies on this topic is that diaspora is regarded either as a liberatory space unmoored from the repressive national identity-formation or as a state pregnant with challenges against the authority of a nationalism or nation-state. Viewed within the social realities of multi-ethnic nations, however, diaspora has another dark face to reveal. In other words, it turns out to have reproduced another hierarchy within itself: the leading group represses the minorities for their failure to conform to the former��s perspective. The cultural difference, which diaspora is believed to preserve, also lends the hegemonic group of the host society an excuse to re-ethnicize the immigrants and subsume them under the same extra-national category as the people the latter has left behind in their homeland. This study aims at clarifying the current, often-confusing understandings of diaspora by analyzing a variety of its historical and theoretical models. It then proceeds to delving into the political potentials of diaspora and discuss their possible ramifications on the socio-political horizon.


Paper Information

Conference: ECCS2014
Stream: Cultural Studies

This paper is part of the ECCS2014 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon