Embodied Memory and Bengali Identities in Britain Gender, Dance, and British Bangladeshi Pasts, Presents, and Futures

This book provides insight into the relationship between embodied processes and products of remembering and belonging among British Bangladeshi women in Tower Hamlets, London. Based on an analysis of memories performed in both professional and social dancing among British Bangladeshi women, as well as of the spaces and encounters that enable the production, transmission, and negotiation of such memories, this book addresses questions about the relationship between remembering and identification in the diaspora.

1. Introduction.- 2. Embodied Memories and the Diaspora.- 3. Setting the Scene.- 4. Beneath the Surface.- 5. Choreographing the Past.- 6. Embodied Transmission and Communication.- 7. Transnationalisation and Regionalisation of Mnemonic Belonging.- 8. Conclusions.

Julia Giese is a current Research Associate at the Department for Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University in the UK. She is interested in cultural memory, gender and diaspora, media work, and creative research methodologies.