Home: concepts, constructions, contexts

In: Chemnitzer Anglistik/Amerikanistik today volume 7

Abstract

This collection of essays sets out to examine the complexity and significance of the idea of "home" in its various permutations and manifestations. It puts forward the notion of "home" not only as a physical spatial/geographical location, but as a cultural, socio-economic and ideological paradigm that is gendered and racialized. In exploring the different concepts, constructions and contexts of "home," and challenging the common associations of the term, the contributions in this volume propose that it might be less a static and fixed entity than a flexible, multivalent and even inherently contradictory term. Adopting diachronic approaches to the concept of home from various disciplines such as literature, cultural studies, history, sociology, art, media, architecture, philosophy, and psychology, this volume includes an exceptionally broad variety of case studies and individual conceptualizations of home in literature, film, media, and the arts. It illustrates how the notion of "home" should be unhinged from prevalent and seemingly universal understandings of the term as a permanent location of repose and shelter, the place of one's origin and roots. Rather, the essays collected here propose that "home" refers to a much more complex, and contested, concept. To this end, they investigate the various productive tensions that emerge as a result of globally/locally contested spaces, diverging ideologies, conflicts of interest and power struggles, all of which re-shape and re-configure the various concepts, constructions and contexts of "home."