The cultural mediation of the margin


Abu Haque, York University

Identities are never fully unified but are considered fragmented and are a process of becoming rather than being, in which the process of identification privileges some and excludes others. Identities also become complicated through the cultural and technological mediation of the dominant ideologies within the mechanisms of power and control. Hence, it requires a cross-cultural fluidity to unpack the alienation and entanglement brought about by the everyday spatial practices of the hegemonic culture into a space that is also occupied by other ethnocultural groups. The research challenges the discursive practices perpetuated by the dominant ideologies that shape the identities of marginalized groups in an otherwise hybrid living in Canada. The research used a triangulation of methodologies: a visual narrative, an analysis of images from two newspapers, and participant interviews to explore the cultural mediation of the margin. The visual narrative analyzed images shared by the participants and photos taken by the researcher. It analyzed the images used in the two newspapers. The images shared by the participants explore their homes, workplaces, and social spaces including their culture, festivals, family life, leisure activities, etc. The analysis of the images supplements the interviews, while the visual narrative provides an introspection of the marginal space along with their struggle. The significant findings of the study suggest the existence of the hegemonic culture, a set of ideologies and body politics that privilege the dominant group(s) to reproduce a specific national discourse including in the pedagogy. Representations of space, as the study of two newspapers reveals, show consistent systematic biases of marginal representations. Representational spaces, on the other hand, demonstrate that the space of the margin is ambiguous and a space of struggle, which is also a space of resistance expressed through a myriad of ways. However, a hybrid form of living also constantly challenges this narrative to facilitate the voices of the other: the marginalized, the displaced, and the immigrants. The research has expanded our knowledge of the cultural production of identities within the national discourse of the so-called multicultural Canada.

This paper will be presented at the following session: