BUCH
Homebound: Diaspora Spaces and Selves in Greek American Return Narratives
American Studies – A Monograph Series, Bd. 257
2015
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Abstract
“Home is where the heart is” – but where is the heart of the daughter or the grandson of a Greek immigrant living in the United States? In the American imagination, immigration ends with the successful integration into American culture and society. Yet, the routes of immigration are not straight, but circular. The home outside America appeals to immigrants and their descendants. It inspires them to return and not to stay put. Returnees keep moving back and forth between homes, creating diaspora spaces in which they cultivate transnational ties. In this volume, for the first time, autobiographical accounts of return are conceptualized as a distinct and important sub-genre of travel and life writing, as ‘return narratives’. Exemplified by eight Greek American texts about the challenges and benefits of coming home, the motif of return is explored and defined in a diasporic and Greek American context. This motif has played a central role in Greek American writing, especially after the 1960s; it mirrors the complex formulation of a Greek American identity. This volume uses Greek American studies, diaspora theory, transnational studies, and gender studies to offer a new analytical framework in American and Literary Studies for thinking about home, the nation-state and identity today.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
| Zwischenüberschrift | Seite | Aktion | Preis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | 5 | ||
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 9 | ||
| THE PROMISE OF RETURN | 13 | ||
| Introduction | 13 | ||
| The Politics of Returning Home | 15 | ||
| The Contours of Greek America | 20 | ||
| Greek American Literature | 25 | ||
| 1 THE HOME(S) OF DIASPORA | 33 | ||
| Introduction | 33 | ||
| The Impossibility of Home | 35 | ||
| Diaspora and the Homeland | 41 | ||
| Diaspora and Return | 49 | ||
| Returning to the Homeland: Conclusion | 55 | ||
| 2 RETURN NARRATIVES: LATE ARRIVALS AND EARLY DEPARTURES | 59 | ||
| Introduction | 59 | ||
| Travel Writing: Approaching a Genre | 61 | ||
| Return Narratives: Working Definition | 69 | ||
| Choosing Position(s) in Greece by Prejudice | 73 | ||
| Athens | 75 | ||
| Hora | 80 | ||
| On the Road | 83 | ||
| The Fluctuation of Returnee Positions: Conclusion | 84 | ||
| 3 WOMEN’S DIASPORA SPACES | 87 | ||
| Introduction | 87 | ||
| Feminizing Diaspora | 89 | ||
| Greek America’s Women | 92 | ||
| Feminizing Return | 95 | ||
| Women’s Diaspora in The Priest Fainted | 97 | ||
| “Start with imam”: A Culinary Diaspora | 101 | ||
| Women’s Diaspora in North of Ithaka | 109 | ||
| Diaspora and Home-Ownership | 113 | ||
| Women's Diaspora Spaces: Conclusion | 118 | ||
| 4 REGIONAL RETURN NARRATIVES | 123 | ||
| Introduction | 123 | ||
| Popular (Auto)ethnography and Regional Writing | 126 | ||
| The Bellstone: Tales of Masculinity | 132 | ||
| The Returnee Self in The Bellstone | 141 | ||
| The Feasts of Memory: Tales of Family | 144 | ||
| The Returnee Self in The Feasts of Memory | 150 | ||
| Regional Story Telling in the Diaspora: Conclusion | 155 | ||
| 5 RETURNING TO THE CITY: ATHENS | 157 | ||
| Introduction | 157 | ||
| Writing Athens: Entering and Leaving | 163 | ||
| Immigrants and Athenians in the City | 166 | ||
| Nostalgia in the City | 172 | ||
| Writing Athens: Entering and Dwelling | 177 | ||
| The Politics of Belonging: Xeni and Dyki Mas | 181 | ||
| Writing Counter-Spaces: Athens and the U.S | 183 | ||
| The City as Diaspora Space: Conclusion | 190 | ||
| RETURN REVISITED: A CONCLUSION | 193 | ||
| Off the Center | 194 | ||
| The Meaning of Greece | 197 | ||
| Possibilities and Outlook | 199 | ||
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | 207 |
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