Acculturation, Dialogical Voices and the Construction of the Diasporic Self

Abstract

This article argues that various Third World, diasporic communities (e.g. Indian-American, Chinese-Canadian, Turkish-German), settled primarily in Europe and North America, negotiate their cultural identities as citizens of First World countries while retaining a strong identification with the culture of their home country. A dialogical model of acculturation is employed to explain the psychological complexities, contradictions and cultural specificities involved in the experiences of these non-European, diasporic communities. Such a model illustrates how the diasporic identity is shaped by, and linked to, the cultural and political issues of race, gender, colonization and power that are present in the hostland and the homeland. I draw upon Said's memoir Out of Place (1999) to show how a diasporic immigrant's effort to rework the different parts of one's heritage or ethnicity entails an ongoing, dialogical negotiation between the I positions of feeling simultaneously assimilated, separated and marginalized.