ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on three main sites of negotiation in the postmigrant condition: identity, language and institutions. It offers a wider perspective of the transformations brought about by postmigration. The chapter also focuses upon, ‘opens for new analytical perspectives and creates sites of negotiation, such as new cultural institutions, languages and approaches in cultural expressions’ and is equally essential. It describes processes of transformation, movements from singular identity to multiple disidentifications, from monolingual to multilingual, from ‘homogenous’ institutions to spaces evolving in response to demands for diversity. The chapter examines ways in which individuals can intentionally intervene in the life-long process of identification through frequent manoeuvring and self-positioning in order to transgress binary dichotomies. The focus shifts from the insubstantial institutions of identity and language to the concrete frameworks and structures of cultural institutions such as museums, film institutes and independent art spaces.