THE ROOTS OF MY SHAME: place in diasporic imaginary

Abstract

The notion of roots, of place and belonging, is always charged with significant emotional investment in diasporic imaginary. The mythogenies of birth, origin, nation, faith and all the other tropological reinscriptions of place are usually seen as closures of identity that produce fixed economies of meaning. Indeed, the exoticism and charisma of authenticity associated with place that has today become the neoliberal mainstay of cultural difference only testifies to its irrevocable demise. And yet, place still retains its power as the primary trope of identity and the difficulty of distinguishing between the two is nowhere more visceral than in the experience of unhomely subjects. Using recent theoretical developments in human geography and the resources of literary and life writing, this paper will explore the significance of place for the experience of diasporic shame that will emerge as the affective articulation of unhomeliness, that which makes unhomeliness feel.