Memories of displacement

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, political and economic disruptions, wars, voluntary or enforced migrations, colonization and post-coloniality experienced by large communities all over the world have aroused feelings of loss and displacement. In face of new places and realities, people have been obliged to continuous translation or redefinition of their cultural identity, and they often had to deal with the aftermath of ideological and ethnic violence. Even when communities or individuals have found a new homeland elsewhere, the sense of dislocation, strangeness or restlessness remains. Its artistic expression may enable displaced subjects to overcome the loss of home and language in the new setting and to cope with the emotions triggered by that uprooting. It may in fact organize emotions, feelings and ways of thinking which are initially distinct from those of the host culture. In recent years, literature and the other arts have focused on the positive overcoming of displacement and welcoming cross-pollinations and transcultural interactions. The transculturality phenomenon, understood as the formation of multifaceted, fluid identities resulting from diverse cultural encounters or possible disencounters, must be taken into account.