Collective memory, space and performativity among the Turkish-speaking community in North London

Abstract

The Turkish-speaking community refers to migrants from Turkey and Cyprus. Although it is commonly mistaken as a monolithic group, they are from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Moreover, although the collective memory and interactions with home country play a role in identity construction, post-modern identities are hybridised and fragmented. Therefore, there is no longer a fixed and unified Turkish/Kurdish diaspora identity, but there are multiple and fluid identities. Using Judith Butler’s (1988) theory of performativity, Erving Goffman’s (1990a) dramaturgy, concepts by Homi Bhabha (1994) such as ‘hybridity’, ‘third space’ and Baudrillard’s (2001) ‘hyper reality’ and ‘simulacrum’, the aim of this thesis is to explore identity performances in an everyday life context.
This thesis explores the following questions; how identity is constituted and maintained in a foreign culturalscape; how Turkish-speaking individuals negotiate between home and host chronotopes and how they perform their identities in everyday life via cultural practices. Through analysis of ethnographic field study and in-depth interviews, this thesis contributes to the understanding of identity performances of the Turkish-speaking community and hybrid identity forms in thirdspace.