Figures of Diasporic Cultural Production: Some Entries from the Palestinian Lexicon
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Abstract
Figures of Diasporic Cultural Production: Some Entries from the Palestinian Lexicon
The article takes as its starting point the idea that every diaspora has its own particular lexicon. Discussing recent attempts to define the concept, Bardenstein argues that diasporas are not reified static entities but always in flux and, therefore, defy rigid categorizations. This tension between the specific and the universal is reflected in the set of figures of cultural production that Bardenstein describes as structuring the particular lexicon of the Palestian diaspora, while simultaneously suggesting that they are not unique to this context. These figures include the “diasporic fragment” (the fixation on particular metonymic fragments), “diasporic anachronisms” (certain kinds of disjunctures of diasporic time) and the “composite” or piecing together of new entities from bits and pieces of existing ones.