Imaginary Homelands

In Routes, one of the most significant essays by contemporary anthropologist James Clifford, the traditional paradigms through which traditional ethnography has been for long time defining the concept of culture and cultural identity are radically subverted. Based on the statements of those scholars (first of all Edward Said), fathers of the post-colonial theory, James Clifford coins the expression "Travelling cultures", a term embodying a clear statement: cultural identity cannot be considered as a country-specific phenomenon. By applying the concepts of the post-structuralist approach to cultural analysis, Clifford denies the existence of a relationship which would univocally bind a culture to a geographical reality, therefore raising doubts about the relations linking time, space and cultural production, traditionally considered as the basis of national identity. However, what makes Clifford's theoretical contribution innovative with regard to the previous paradigms, is his global approach: according to him, the anti-dogmatic concept of culture he has developed, does not only concern those populations that have been subjected to colonization or diaspora, but also applies to Western societies. Thus Clifford identifies in crossbreeding and delocalization the ontological condition of post-modern cultural identity. This key contribution to post-colonial criticism leads us to think about the state of disorientation characterizing human beings in today`s society. Nowadays all of us are witnessing the dialectic of history as irreversibly oriented towards a global scenario, a context where the borderline separating national identities is progressively fainting as a consequence of the increasing tension between local identities and global dynamics. Taking this fact into account, if it's true that mutability and dynamism define the intrinsic nature of culture, what is left of our origins and roots? Should we give up any hope to maintain an inner, visceral connection with our homeland and therefore should we reformulate our need for belonging and identification in response to the radical changes characterizing our times? Quoting the title of one of Salman Rushdie's most profound and significant texts, the "Imaginary Homelands" project was conceived starting from these same questions. In his book, Rushdie illustrated the traumatic nature of cultural disorientation referring to his own experience as an immigrant. The British Indian author defines cultural identity as the result of an endless research unconsciously undertaken by every human being in the attempt to make his/her existence worth living. In order to do so we try to provide our cultural identity with a foundation, and we find such foundation to lie in a system of symbols and representations. In this way "Imaginary Homelands" represents the allegory of a timeless space where these symbols and representations convey, therefore exhorting us to think about how they impact both our collective imagination and the way cultural identity is currently experienced.