Interdisciplinary Studies in Diasporas – serie

This collection of essays provides both critical and interdisciplinary means for thinking across diasporic travels within the Portuguese experience and its intersection with other peoples and cultures. The chapters are organized into four sections and offer rich, diverse, and insightful studies that provide a conceptualization of the Portuguese diaspora with special attention to the importance of cross-cultural interferences and influences. Within this framework, and from a variety of perspectives, some of the chapters depict identity-formation paths among Portuguese Jews and Luso-Indians in Australia, as well as the historical, cultural, and literary interplay among Portuguese and other diasporas in Goa, the West Indies, and Brazil. Other chapters analyze Portuguese-American literature and poetry, whereby the intersection of memory, dual identity, and place are meticulously explored. The last section of the book addresses Portuguese writers and poets who lived through (in)voluntary exile or were dislocated to Europe and Asia, and how their diasporic conditions interface with their textualized narratives. Place and memory as means of reconstructing a fragmented existence, in the writings of exiled writers, are also explored. The volume closes with a chapter on Portuguese illegal migration to France. The studies herein open new lines of inquiry into diaspora studies.

This book explores the profound social, cultural, and political changes that affected the way in which Canadians and Australians defined themselves as a «people» from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s. Taking as its central theme the way each country responded to the introduction of new migrants, the book asks a key historical question: why and how did multiculturalism replace Britishness as the defining idea of community for English-speaking Canada and Australia, and what does this say about their respective experiences of nationalism in the twentieth century? The book begins from a simple premise – namely, that the path towards the adoption of multiculturalism as the orthodox way of defining national community in English-speaking Canada and Australia in the latter half of the twentieth century was both uncertain and unsteady. It followed a period in which both nations had looked first and foremost to Britain to define their national self-image. In both nations, however, following the breakdown of their more formal and institutional ties to the ‘mother-country’ in the post-war period there was a crisis of national meaning, and policy makers and politicians moved quickly to fill the void with a new idea of the nation, one that was the very antithesis to the White, monolithic idea of Britishness. This book will be useful for both history and politics courses in Australia and Canada, as well as internationally.‘A well-researched and important comparative study of the decline of Britishness and the rise of multiculturalism in both Canada and Australia from the 1890s to the present. It is a must-read book for historians of both countries, especially those interested in the creation of national identities.'—Phil Buckner, UCL/University of New Brunswick'An original approach to an important subject, this book argues that it is no coincidence that Australia and Canada were at the forefront of the official adoption of multiculturalism as a unifying ideal. Mann’s study insists on the historical contingency of the rise of multicultural discourse, locating it securely within the wider history of global decolonization.'—Stuart Ward, University of Copenhagen'A comparative book-length study of Australian and Canadian multiculturalism policy is long overdue. Unlike many scholars, he does not conflate modern understandings of multiculturalism with its historical antecedents. Instead, he seeks to historicize multiculturalism policy – something that has been sorely lacking in both geographical contexts.' —Lee Blanding, Langara College‘Mann challenges the preconception that multiculturalism was a "natural" and "inevitable" development of the history of Canada and Australia. Since he focuses on an historical and political perspective, his work is a good companion to other works that focus on a cultural or economic approach to nationalism and national identities.'—Elisa Sance, University of Maine'The originality of Mann’s approach lies in its close reading of texts: speeches, correspondence and other private papers. Mann’s book is significant for the comparative perspectives that it brings to the study of the rise of multiculturalism in Canada and Australia.'—Andrew Markus, Monash University‘This is an ambitious work, covering a span of almost a century and maintaining its focus on the two strands of national identity and immigration policy. Mann’s delivery matches the ambition of the project, and this is an important work for anyone wishing to understand the growth of post-British national identities in Canada and Australia.'—Iain Johnston-White, Aberystwyth University'Timely and relevant, Mann’s book will provide a reliable source for higher education coursework on postcolonial identity politics. It is indispensable for course development on comparative postcolonial politics, and will support studies of contemporary cultural phenomena too, by providing a parallel historical survey.'—Gabriella T. Espák,　University of Debrecen

The Land Act of 1820 made it possible for settlers to begin to populate the West and added to the confiscation of land from Native Americans. Former landowners – a mix of Native American, African and European ancestry – migrated to the northern frontier and founded at least thirty well-defined free black communities between 1820 and 1850 in the Old Northwest, becoming an important safe haven and beacon of freedom.Its notoriety and size grew as slaves often migrated to these locations after they were granted emancipation in the wills of slave owners who purchased land in the area for them to settle on. The newly free people found sanctuary as these communities were also rumored to shelter runaway slaves in their role as active participants in the Underground Railroad Movement.However, the prosperity of blacks living in these villages angered some of the local whites – many of whom were migrating at the same time and were connected to local law officials and politicians. Archival documents reveal continued acts of terrorism perpetuated against blacks which heightened the importance of the strength of the communities they founded – specifically schools, churches, businesses, and intergenerational family structures – in providing a unified front that allowed them to bond and thrive in an environment that was not always conducive to their survival.Invisible in Plain Sight: Self-Determination Strategies of Free Blacks in the Old Northwest provides a rare detailed examination of an often overlooked piece of the American tapestry. It is perfect reading for history classes in high school and college, as well as for history enthusiasts looking for something new.

Caldo Verde Is Not Stone Soup identifies elements of an emerging Portuguese American culture in the United States. The book discusses subjects and themes that reflect the richness and diversity of this culture. Included are analyses of the Portuguese fondness for nicknames over surnames, pejorative terms ("portugee," "Gee"), beau ideal heroes (John Philip Sousa, John Dos Passos, and Peter Francisco), now forgotten early emigrants, foreign visitors to the Azores (Samuel Longfellow and Thomas Wentworth Higginson), proverbs from the oral and literary traditions, the Portuguese sailor on American ships, and the saga of English As She Is Spoke, a serious-minded textbook that became a comic phenomenon.

There’s No Word for Saudade contains twenty-one essays aimed at a readership interested in cultural and historical materials, including those related to Portuguese America. Significant figures covered include John Dos Passos, Charles Reis Felix, Julian Silva, John Philip Sousa, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, James Merrill, and the Azorean John Francis, businessman, patron, and friend to the fabled Provincetown Players. Concluding essays scrutinize and judge the phenomenon of the Portuguese movie in the 1930s and 1940s, and trace the history of the tricky but persistently present Portuguese concept of saudade.

The Transnational Imaginaries of M. G. Vassanji is a collection of scholarly articles that engages with, analyzes, and appreciatively critiques the fiction and nonfiction writing of M. G. Vassanji, a multiple award-winning author. Vassanji’s works have a sense of multiple connections across four continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. He challenges the imperial centers of Western powers through the content of his work and his deeply-felt humanist engagements with the politics of displacement, settlement, partition and postcolonialism. Ranging across almost his entire oeuvre, the contributors to this book argue that Vassanji’s work should be read as one emerging from a transnational space that connects people, places and issues across the world. Collectively, the chapters in this book, using a range of theoretical frameworks, claim that Vassanji’s work both fits into and goes beyond the usual categorizations, structures and styles of analysis applied to writers from the colonies.

This book is a collection of essays by international writer Bapsi Sidhwa gathered for the first time in one edition by Teresa Russo, with a foreword written by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Deepa Mehta. Landscapes of Writing: Collected Essays of Bapsi Sidhwa provides a writer’s perspective on issues of South Asian literature, linguistics, poetry, and views of political events and globalization. In the first part of the book, Bapsi Sidhwa discusses her childhood, family life, and how she became a writer. There is also a revised essay detailing how her book Cracking India became a film by Deepa Mehta. The second part of the book focuses on her thoughts concerning war, terrorism, and how to achieve peace. This collection includes two letters, demonstrating her local and nationalistic perspectives to a larger view of an interconnected world.

American Studies Over_Seas I: Narrating Multiple America(s) is a contribution to the ongoing debate in the field of American Studies in its most recent turn—Transnational American Studies—a paradigm shift in the discipline which runs counter to a consensus version of U.S. history and culture. The essays highlight the dissenting narratives in the study of "America" as a mindscape, multivocal and varied in its discourses of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality. They also evidence the interrelation of the United States with Europe and examine how society, history, literature, and art intersect, providing alternative ways to comprehend the current geopolitical and cultural mindset on both sides of the Atlantic. These are interdisciplinary and diverse texts, authored by both senior leading scholars and promising younger researchers.The volume will benefit students and scholars of international American Studies, interdisciplinary and multicultural studies in history, sociology, modern languages literatures and cultures, cultural studies, comparative literatures, identity and ethnic studies, among others. It will also be of interest to researchers of American studies, transatlantic and transoceanic studies, diasporas and related fields of history, literature, art, and politics, as well as to the general reader with a background in the social sciences and the humanities.

(Multi)Vocal Exchanges Across the Ocean is the second volume of the project American Studies Over_Seas, an edited collection of texts honoring two pioneering Portuguese scholars in American literature and culture. Devoted to relations between Portugal and the United States, it includes essays by leading scholars whose research illuminates the multifarious ways in which history, sociology and literature intersect. A special feature of this collection is the inclusion of creative writing pieces that provide an imaginative intellectual backdrop to the transnational turn in American Studies. The literary contributions focus on diasporic experiences, dramatizing issues of ethnicity, identity, and interculturality. The essays of a more personal nature highlight the career of the two honorees, discuss protocols involving academic exchanges, and showcase dialogues between Europe and America over the past 30 years. Of benefit to the academic and the interested reader, this volume enriches the metaphor of the Atlantic Ocean as a space not only of struggle but also of ongoing conversation.

Este livro, que contribui para a preservação duma tradição oral em vias de desaparecimento, inclui 116 contos de carácter indo-europeu gravados a 28 informantes do Norte de Portugal e dos Açores no Canadá. Os contos foram fielmente transcritos. A introdução, em português e inglês, apresenta um panorama da imigração portuguesa para aquele país. Cada conto é precedido por um resumo em inglês, e classificado segundo o catálogo internacional de Hans-Jörg Uther. Além de apresentar uma lista de variantes lusófonas (Portugal, Brasil, Angola, Cabo Verde, Goa, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, Timor), a classificação inclui uma secção dedicada à área cultural ibérica: Espanha, América espanhola, e Sefarditas. Este livro, que também é de grande valor linguístico, acaba com quatro apêndices: vocabulário, informantes, motivos e tipos-conto. This book, which contributes to the preservation of a fast disappearing oral tradition, includes 116 faithfully transcribed Indo-European folktales recorded by 28 informants from Northern Portugal and the Azores but now living in Canada. The introduction, in Portuguese and English, presents an overview of Portuguese immigration to that country. Each folktale is preceded by an English summary, and classified according to Hans-Jörg Uther’s international catalog. Besides listing versions from the Portuguese-speaking world (Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Goa, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Timor), Paulo Correia’s classification includes a section dedicated to the Iberian cultural area (Spain, Spanish America, and the Sephardim). This book, which is also of great linguistic value, ends with four appendices: vocabulary, informants, motifs and taletypes.

Esta é a segunda de duas coleções dedicadas ao conto popular português na América do Norte (Canadá e Massachusetts). O presente volume, que contribui para a preservação de uma tradição imemorial em via de desaparecimento, é composto por 82 contos folclóricos de carácter indo-europeu gravados em Taunton, Massachusetts. A maioria (72) foi contada por Guilherme Alexandre da Silveira, um septuagenário da ilha das Flores, o qual era sem dúvida um dos últimos grandes contadores dos Açores, e talvez de toda a Europa. Os contos foram fielmente transcritos, incluindo numerosos arcaísmos, regionalismos e alguns dos anglicismos que caracterizam a fala dos imigrantes. A introdução, em português e inglês, apresenta um panorama da imigração portuguesa para a Nova Inglaterra. Cada conto é precedido por um resumo em inglês e classificado de acordo com o catálogo internacional de Hans-Jörg Uther. Seguem-se secções dedicadas ao mundo lusófono (Portugal, Brasil, Angola, Cabo Verde, Goa, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique e Timor) e à área cultural ibérica (Espanha, América Latina e Sefarditas). Este livro, que também é de grande valor linguístico, termina com cinco apêndices: vocabulário, informantes, motivos, e dois apêndices dedicados aos tipos-conto. O primeiro classifica as histórias aqui incluídas; o segundo reúne todos os contos encontrados nas três colecções norte-americanas. This is the second of two collections dedicated to the Portuguese folktale in North America (Canada and Massachusetts). The present volume, which contributes to preserving an ancient, disappearing tradition, consists of 82 folktales of Indo-European character recorded in Taunton, Massachusetts. Most were told by Guilherme Alexandre da Silveira, a septuagenarian from the island of Flores, who was one the last surviving great storytellers from the Azores, and perhaps all of Europe. The tales were faithfully transcribed from recordings, including numerous archaisms, regionalisms, and some of the Anglicisms that characterize immigrant speech. The introduction, in Portuguese and English, presents an overview of Portuguese immigration to New England. Each tale is preceded by an English summary, and is classified according to Hans-Jörg Uther’s international catalog. There follow sections dedicated to the Portuguese-speaking world (Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Goa, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Timor) and the Iberian cultural area (Spain, Latin America and the Sephardim). This book, which is of great linguistic value, ends with five appendices: vocabulary, informants, motifs, and two appendices dedicated to tale types. The first classifies the stories included here; the second brings together all the tales found in the three North American collections.

Searching for the Origins of the Portuguese Waltzes is a collection of narratives depicting a six-year quest to discover the roots of a piece of traditional music played in St. John’s, Newfoundland: the Portuguese Waltzes. Through interviews, research, and observations, author Richard Simas explores the relationship between Portuguese bacalhoeiros (cod fishermen) and the population of St. John’s during the recent cod-fishing era (approximately 1950 to 1980). Memory, and its varying interpretation among different communities, is a major underlying theme. Above all, though, this is a book about music, shared, invented, and improvised, underscoring the power of melody to capture and conserve emotional memory across the Atlantic.

American Murids is a major new ethnography of an African Sufi Muslim immigrant community in the United States. It is particularly timely given the current contentious discourse concerning Muslims and immigration. By listening to what Murids say about themselves, author Jonathan Bornman gives us the first ever look at how the spiritual and ethical values of Murids in the diaspora influence the ways they interact with other communities in New York City.No other religious group in West Africa has generated more scholarship than the Muridiyya of Senegal. Much of this literature has focused on history, social and political science, economics, migration, and transnationality. This book offers a fresh look by using the lens of nonviolence, revealing the Murid commitment to shared peace. The discovery of a transnational Murid youth movement in New York City, balancing tradition and new expressions of faith, points towards the emergence of an American Muridiyya.

This book aims to create a new space for the analysis of female experience in the Italian diaspora through a selected sample of representative writers in contemporary Anglophone literature. In addition, it presents memoir writing as a fertile ground for literary and cultural research and as an important framework for expanding paradigms of identity in our increasingly diverse societies. This innovative study focuses on intersectional memoirs –texts written from the perspective of ethnic women. It examines the formation of narratives of identity in contemporary writing, particularly looking at the expression of cultural and gender difference through the genre of memoir and within the US and Canadian contexts. The work of migrant and ethnic communities and marginalized voices situated at the boundaries of nations, cultures, social classes and genders, is examined through a blend of literary, feminist, racial and cultural memory theories supported by textual analysis.

Previously unavailable in English, Salim Barakat’s Sages of Darkness depicts Kurdish life in the period of transition from a traditional tribal existence to half-hearted modernization under the Ottomans. A saga of the lives and deaths of two Kurdish chieftains and their families, it is filled with fantasy, humor and wonder as well as tragedy and devotion to the futile, and delves into the intertwined workings of history, mythology and memory. It is a landmark of Kurdish literature.The translator, Aviva Butt, has meticulously developed a fitting vocabulary to render Barakat’s poetic Arabic into English. The translation is accompanied by extensive notes, some of which explain the translator’s rationale in relation to particular moments in the text. With her deep knowledge of Middle Eastern texts, including the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an, she brings unique skills and breadth of understanding to a subtle rendering of what was previously considered impossible to translate. A critical Introduction alerts the reader to what is to come, the new and otherwise unexpected.