Diaspora artists must be read across multiple contexts shaped by power

Evidence

Of course, the subtlety of the matter—the complexity of the history that has yet to be written—is that Aubrey Williams’ work would have to be considered in three different contexts: that of Guyana, that of the Guyanese and West Indian diaspora in Britain, and that of British society. These contexts would have to be considered to a degree separately, and in their complicated interrelationships, affected by the realities of power. And all would have to be adjusted in relation to Williams’ own desire to be simply a modern, contemporary artist, the equal of any other. At one moment he could say, “I haven’t wasted a lot of energy on this roots business.… I’ve paid attention to a hundred different things.… Why must I isolate one philosophy?”; at another, “the crux of the matter inherent in my work since I was a boy has been the human predicament, specifically with regard to the Guyanese situation.” — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 851

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the multi-contextual method for reading diaspora cultural production — separately, in interrelationship, adjusted to the artist’s own self-understanding.
• XREF: The ‘three contexts’ method carries directly into how Muslim-identity readings in Islamophobia studies must layer national, diasporic, and host-society contexts.