ABSTRACT

First published in 2006. The dynamics of ethnicity, diaspora, identity and community are the defining features of contemporary life, giving rise to important and exciting new interdisciplinary fields of study and literature on subjects that were previously seen as the exclusive domain of the social sciences. Connecting Histories is an important contribution to this trend. While using sociological and anthropological theories, its is an innovative historical and comparative assessment of ethnic identities and memories. Romain focuses on Afro-Caribbean and Jewish individuals and groups, investigating the ways in which 'communities' remember their experiences.

chapter 1|44 pages

An Introduction to Historical and Ethnic Memory in Life History

African-Caribbean and Jewish Autobiography and Oral History

part |63 pages

Paradoxes of Migration

chapter 2|23 pages

Myths, Silence and Autobiographical Contexts

The Autobiographical Memory of Ernest Marke and Maurice Levinson

chapter 3|25 pages

The Self-Knowing Autobiographical Voice, Meta-Memory and the Deconstruction of Myths

Linda Grant, Floella Benjamin, Wallace Collins and Louis Teeman

part |58 pages

‘By the Waters of Babylon'

chapter 4|20 pages

Theorisations of the Diaspora

Race, Identity, and Historical Memory

chapter 5|30 pages

Memories of ‘Dwelling' and Migration

Britain and the Diaspora in Travel and Migration Narratives

part |73 pages

Hidden Histories, Collective Memory, Remembering and Forgetting in Black and Jewish Ethnic Memory

chapter 6|38 pages

Re-remembering and Forgetting Histories

Memories of Racist Riots in Britain

chapter 7|25 pages

Mythology and History

Memories of Comparative Histories, Black and Jewish Identity and Inter-Ethnic Relations

chapter 8|8 pages

Conclusion