Tracing Stories of a Family Language: Personal Accounts of Diasporic Experience

Jovanović, Ana; Kojadinović, Ana; Portmann, Alexandra (2023). Tracing Stories of a Family Language: Personal Accounts of Diasporic Experience. In: Arrocha, William; Xeni, Elena (eds.) Migrations and Diasporas. Struggling between Inclusions and Exclusions. Emerald Publishing 10.1108/978-1-83797-146-620231014

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In this paper we share narratives from our personal experiences with a shared focus on the relationships between personal identities and family language. The acquisition of a family language is said to be accompanied by a specific ‘intercultural burden’ , which is manifested at the intersection of different influences and psychological tensions. This psychosocial and cultural reality has the potential for the development of a true intercultural identity that brings together contradictions and conflicts of inherited cultural differences. Here, through a prism of three personal narratives, we create a series of questions and reflections in relation to the family language. The three voices are articulated through three auto-ethnographic accounts of individuals – two linguists and a theatre scholar who are both personally and professionally invested in the topic of postmigration . The common thread of the three narratives is the experience of Serbian as the first language. As an aspect of personal identity, the idealised concept of family language affects one’s identity and makes a decisive impact on investment and potentially life-defining decisions.
Keywords: identity, family language, narratives, intercultural burden, investment.

Item Type:

Book Section (Book Chapter)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Theater Studies

UniBE Contributor:

Portmann, Alexandra

Subjects:

700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment

ISBN:

978-1-83797-147-3

Publisher:

Emerald Publishing

Language:

English

Submitter:

Alexandra Portmann

Date Deposited:

28 Mar 2024 09:40

Last Modified:

28 Mar 2024 09:40

Publisher DOI:

10.1108/978-1-83797-146-620231014

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/194962

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