Gendering Diaspora: Revisioning Home/Redefining the Concept

The present paper is part of a larger study that examines postcolonial diasporic existence through the lens of gender. I use the term „postcolonial diaspora ‟ here descriptively to refer to the migration and resettlement in the West of peoples from former colonies of European nations, generally speaking after World War Two. The broad question I address in this study is how does gender social positioning and power relations shape diasporic existence and knowledge constructed about such existence? I address this question with a clear understanding that (a) gender is but one constitutive element of an individual‟s social identity and one dimension of social power relations, and (b) gender intersects a myriad of other elements of identity and dimensions of social power, such as race, class, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, education, and age, in determining an individual‟s positioning in a society and in shaping that individual‟s lived experiences.1 Consequently, I do not wish to suggest that there is an essential, unmediated, gender identity or a homogenous set of gender experiences. In fact, my discussion that follows on the portrayal of postcolonial diasporic existence in two literary works points to intricate ways in which gender intersects with race, religion