Representation, Expression and Identity: Interdisciplinary Insights on Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging
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Edited by Tina Rahimy Representation, Expression and Identity: Interdisciplinary Insights on Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging At the Interface Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Dr Nancy Billias Advisory Board Dr Alejandro Cervantes-Carson Martin McGoldrick Professor Margaret Chatterjee Revd Stephen Morris Dr Wayne Cristaudo Professor John Parry Mira Crouch Paul Reynolds Dr Phil Fitzsimmons Professor Peter Twohig Professor Asa Kasher Professor S Ram Vemuri O w e n K e l l y Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E An At the Interface research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/ The Diversity and Recognition Hub ‘Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging’ Representation, Expression and Identity: Interdisciplinary Insights on Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging Edited by Tina Rahimy Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2009 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/ The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi- disciplinary publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press. Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-904710-81-3 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2009. First Edition. Content Introduction Tina Rahimy ix The Plural Self & The Social: Some Considerations for Political Theory Muriel Kahane 1 The Contribution of Digital Media Technologies to Cultural Representations in Digital Cinematic Productions Sunny S. K. Lam 13 Do People Make History? Eleni Pavlides 29 The Imagined African Community in Dublin: Identity and Identification Theophilus Ejorh 41 Socio-cultural Belonging in Legal Limbo Ana Bravo-Moreno 53 Ariel Dorfman Writes Home: Literary Citizenship and Transnational Belonging Jonathan Rollins 69 Longing and D r e a m i n g in Real Time: How Chagossian Children in Mauritius See the Chagos Islands S.J.T.M. Evers 79 The Enduring Legacies of Bandung, Non-Alignment and Richard Wright Rob Burton 97 Expressions of Exceptions, Exceptions of Expressions: On Fragmented Languages as Political Discourse Tina Rahimy 105 The Social Construction of Grievance and its Role in Social Movements: Overseas Filipino Workers’ Activism and Homeland Filipino Politics Jae Seung Moon 115 The Politics of Toleration in Contemporary Liberal Societies: Assessing the Validity of Minority Cultural Rights Masakazu Matsumoto 123 The Winter of Our Discontent: ‘Reasonable Accommodation’ and the 2007 Quebec Election Alan Wong 137 Recent Chinese Migrations to South Africa: New Intersections of Race, Class and Ethnicity Yoon Jung Park 153 The Portrait of New Lithuanian Emigrants: Integrative Model of Psychological & Social Factors Laura Seibokaite, Aukse Endriulaitiene & Rasa Marksaityte 169 National Minorities in Poland after 2001: A Political Problem or an Element of Multicultural Reality? Iwona Jakimowicz-Ostrowska 189 The Dialogical Self and Memory-Shaping Processes: Japanese Migrant Mothers in Ireland Naoko Maehara 201 Concepts of Locality, Regionality and Europeanness in European Capitals of Culture Tuuli Lähdesmäki 215 Dream or Nightmare: The Architectural Illustration of Conflicted Cultures and Identities in Post-Communist Eastern Europe Raluca Manoliu & Mariana Fartatescu 223 Mediterranean Identities in the Ancient World Leone Porciani 233 ‘Paranoia of Identity Crisis’? Recent South African Literary Historiography and the Discourse of Cultural and Political Transformation Margriet van der Waal 243 Post-Holocaust Reconstructed Identities in Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces and W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz Catalina Botez 265 How Solidarity Works in Highly Diversified Societies: How Far Do We Get with National Liberalism? Patrick Loobuyck 275 Introduction Tina Rahimy The concept of multiculturalism aims at different forms of knowledge, disciplines and academic fields. The purpose of the congress Multiculturalism, Belonging and Conflicts, held from Wednesday the 3rd of September 2008 until Saturday the 6th of September 2008, was precisely to gather as many colleagues specializing in different areas on the matter. The goal of these reflections was not to appreciate one approach more than the other, but rather to comprehend the complexities of the concept of multiculturalism. During the congress different scientists reflected on the human urge to belong as well as on the unavoidable and avoidable conflicts between different forms of thought. The discussions in each session were critical and productive. The participants’ intentions were not to overthrow the others with arguments, but rather to seek affirmative critique. These interdisciplinary conversions insisted on a form of communication based on intertwined reflection. This congress on multiculturalism was thus not only an exercise wherein the existence and value of different forms of culture were acknowledged, nor solely for the sake of a surplus of an interdisciplinary approach as a new form of science. It rather acknowledged once more the plurality of men, not only between them, but also in them as well. This e-book contains a selection of the papers that were presented at the congress. The title of the first session, Multiculturalism – Critical Assessments, defines the atmosphere from the start by not opposing critical thought to affirmative attitude but rather combining the two in a new form of potentiality, just as the organisers, Rob Fisher and Alejandro Cervantes- Carson intended, it to be. The first paper by Muriel Kahane interacts on this matter. By not opposing feminism with multicultural thought, as it has been done lately, but rather by pluralizing the two concepts, she intends to break through the contradictory assumption wherein the West demands its solemn right to the rights of women. In her paper, ‘The Plural Self & The Social: Some Considerations for Political Theory’, Kahane elaborates on the relation between autonomy and identity in connection to a form of feminism that is not restricted by ethnicity. She emphasizes the importance of collective identities as well as personal identities, by showing different forms by which women structure their identity. Through these differentiations, Kahane resists the homogenous discourses of an ideal identity. In the second session, Representations, Sunny Lam elaborates in his article, ‘The Contribution of Digital Media Technologies to Cultural Representations in Digital Cinematic Productions’, on the effects of the new technological developments on the representations in digital new media. Lam x Introduction ______________________________________________________________ argues that these processes affect global symbolic images as well as local intercourse of them. The cinematic aesthetic is rather influenced by different cultural and ‘meaningless’ medial layers in a ‘glocalized’ discourse of technologies. Lam’s representation focuses on the connection between the Hollywood blockbusters and the digitalized kung fu movie productions from Hong Kong. This new discourse does not only create new forms of images but also extends to the birth of a new symbolic order. New forms of ‘discontinual hyper realities’ are at work instead of the old oppositions of the West and the East or local and global. In the third session on Nations, National Identity and Nationalism and the fourth session on Social Imaginary and Identity, the relation between construction of identity, nation-states and nationalism has been discussed. These discussions were not only focused on specific social structures, as in Ireland and Nigeria, but were also analysed on the conceptual level. In ‘Do People Make History?’ Eleni Pavlides elaborates on the relation between people and history. The relation in this article is not only defined by the nation and its history, but also as a concept of memory and as an object of transformation. By using the reflections of two authors – Richard Flanagan in his novel The Sound of One Hand Clapping and Raimond Gaita’s memoirs, Romulus My Father – Pavlides shows Australian literature and political thought have altered. The two works break through the assumptions of a national identity fixated on racial purity. Pavlides shows how these works combine historical consciousness with new ways of approaching the minority, migration and displacement. The deconstruction of a nationality as a continental phenomenon is also achieved by Theophilus Ejorh. In ‘The Imagined African Community i n Dublin: Identity and Identification’ Ejorh analyses the problem of self- definition and political identity in the African community. While this community is viewed as a homogeneous group, according to a false assumption of blackness and cultural unity, he advocates a broader perspective wherein the plurality of the African Diaspora is included in the analysis. This analysis, with its focus on the African community in Dublin, moves beyond particular forms of ‘situationist sensibilities’. His analysis of the imaginary identity of African men