Refugee and Diaspora Memories: The Politics of Remembering and Forgetting

Abstract

This special issue opens up a conversation between three multidisciplinary fields: memory studies, diaspora studies and refugee studies. The introductory paper articulates an analytical framework addressing various forms of memories of displacement. It defines the concepts of exilic and diasporic memories with regard to the classical and post-modern conceptions of diasporas and shows, beyond their formal opposition, the extent to which these two notions interrelate. The article continues by highlighting four themes that cut across the collection of papers in this special issue: the relationship between individual and collective memories; the diversity of actors (re)producing memory narratives; the transmission, negotiation and contestation of memory across space and between generations; and the confrontational and syncretic dynamics which between different types of memories. To conclude, the paper addresses the political implications of the production and dissemination of memories of displacement.

Keywords:

• Diasporic Memory
• Exilic Memory
• Migration Memory
• Migration
• Refugee
• Forced Migration

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank the Oxford Department of International Development, the Oxford Diaspora Programme and the Refugee Studies Centre (all of the University of Oxford) for generously supporting the workshop that inspired this collection. The Workshop Report (Bonfiglio, 2011), and podcasts of the presentations offered at the workshop are available at http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/events/refugees-diasporic-memories

Notes

[1] For an overview of approaches to ‘prototypical’ and ‘new’ conceptualisations of diasporas, see Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (2012a).While this special issue primarily focuses on contributions from the social sciences, the boundaries, conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of diaspora studies have been intellectually pushed through research conducted within the broad remit of cultural studies and the humanities (Chariandy 2006).

[2] On spaces of memory, and memories of Palestinian home-camps, see Qasmiyeh and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (2013).