Introduction

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part explores the usefulness of ‘postmigration’ as an analytical perspective by developing, testing and discussing different postmigrant frames of reading works of art, using contemporary literature, film and performance art as test cases. It analyses the contextualization of Smith’s novel with the suppositions of a postmigrant social and historical condition engenders an approach that deviates from a general tendency in readings of migration literature. The part shows that the concept of a postmigrant condition is a more appropriate starting point for cultural analysis than an overtly politically oriented concept like ‘postmigrant society’, the way it is understood by Naika Foroutan. The notions of a postmigrant condition and a postmigrant perspective are interconnected and interact as do empirical and theoretical knowledge. The part examines how a postmigrant perspective may productively intersect with and differ from already well-established postcolonial perspectives.