Transatlantic Subjects
Acts of Migration and Cultures of Transnationalism between Greece and America
248 pages
|
6 x 9
|
© 2004
The early twentieth century was marked by massive migration of southern Europeans to the United States. Transatlantic Subjects views this diaspora through the lens of Greek migrant life to reveal the emergence of transnational forms of subjectivity.
According to Ioanna Laliotou, cultural institutions and practices played an important role in the formation of migrant subjectivities. Reconstructing the cultural history of migration, her book points out the relationship between subjectivity formation and cultural practices and performances, such as publishing, reading, acting, storytelling, consuming, imitating, parading, and traveling. Transatlantic Subjects then locates the development of these practices within key sites and institutions of cultural formation, such as migrant and fraternal associations, educational institutions, state agencies and nongovernmental organizations, mental institutions, coffee shops, the church, steamship companies, banks, migration services, and chambers of commerce.
Ultimately, Laliotou explores the complex and situational entanglements of migrancy, cultural nationalism, and the politics of self. Reading against the grain of hegemonic narratives of cultural and migration histories, she reveals how migrancy produced distinctive forms of sociality during the first half of the twentieth century.
According to Ioanna Laliotou, cultural institutions and practices played an important role in the formation of migrant subjectivities. Reconstructing the cultural history of migration, her book points out the relationship between subjectivity formation and cultural practices and performances, such as publishing, reading, acting, storytelling, consuming, imitating, parading, and traveling. Transatlantic Subjects then locates the development of these practices within key sites and institutions of cultural formation, such as migrant and fraternal associations, educational institutions, state agencies and nongovernmental organizations, mental institutions, coffee shops, the church, steamship companies, banks, migration services, and chambers of commerce.
Ultimately, Laliotou explores the complex and situational entanglements of migrancy, cultural nationalism, and the politics of self. Reading against the grain of hegemonic narratives of cultural and migration histories, she reveals how migrancy produced distinctive forms of sociality during the first half of the twentieth century.
"Laliotou's monograph is very well argued and should be noticed and read by a broad audience."
"Using dense theoretical language, government documents, contemporary commentary, and emigrant writing, Laliotou offers a rich account of Hellenic culture moving across borders. Emphasizing how emigrants often took charge of their personal lives, she adroitly explores how transatlantic cultural interactions deepened and broadened Hellenic identity."
"A pioneering study on the important topic of immigrant mentality."
“After reading this book, we look with new eyes at the complex processes that go under the names of migration and subjectivity. We see women and men taking decisions, changing habits, making strategies in individual and collective ways, but also creating and listening to songs in coffee shops, putting up parades and theatre plays, imagining a different self and a different life. However, Laliotou does not rigidify them into monolithic and all-inclusive subjects. On the contrary they talk to us in their contradictory ways, at the same time internalizing the American way of life and performing their ethnic and gender belonging with irony or pain. The fact is that Laliotou has explored the cultural archive of migrancy using the most sophisticated tools of analysis and yet innovating them with methodological shrewdness and creativeness. Thus both the gaze of the scholar and the object of study partake in the process of subjectivization, so that the readers themselves are taken by fascination and included in this transforming game.”<Luisa Passerini, University of Torino
“How was the experience of crossing the Atlantic felt by Greek migrants during the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth? How was this crossing imagined, conceptualized and performed? Ioanna Laliotou has written a cultural history of migration from a new globalized historical perspective, exploring its long run consequences in deconstructing and reconnecting national cultures and diasporic identities in both continental shores. With fine analysis, strong argumentation, and attractive narration, Transatlantic Subjects revisits the popular imagery of the European-American immersion and urges the reader to think of the actual migratory world in historical terms.”<Antonis Liakos, University of Athens
Contents
Introduction
From History to Subjectivity: Migrants, Globality, and Culture in the Twentieth Century
Part One: The Immigration Problem
1. Technologies of Self: Nativism, Cultural Pluralism, and "America"
2. The Migrant Remitted
Part Two: Imagination
3. Short Stories of Migration and the Literary Process in Diaspora
4. The Exhibition of Subjectivity: Migrant Performances and Parody Acts
Part Three: Mnemonics
5. Bios and Subjectivity: Life Stories in Migration
6. The History of Migration: Autobiographical Writing and Historiography
Afterword: History in Future Anterior
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
From History to Subjectivity: Migrants, Globality, and Culture in the Twentieth Century
Part One: The Immigration Problem
1. Technologies of Self: Nativism, Cultural Pluralism, and "America"
2. The Migrant Remitted
Part Two: Imagination
3. Short Stories of Migration and the Literary Process in Diaspora
4. The Exhibition of Subjectivity: Migrant Performances and Parody Acts
Part Three: Mnemonics
5. Bios and Subjectivity: Life Stories in Migration
6. The History of Migration: Autobiographical Writing and Historiography
Afterword: History in Future Anterior
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
History: American History | European History
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory
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