Mobility, Identity, and Complexity: Iranian Azerbaijanis in the U.S.

Abstract

In this chapter, I draw on my ethnographic study of Iranian Azerbaijanis in the U.S. to illustrate how participants simultaneously draw on multiple scaled chronotopes (Bakhtin, 1981) to position themselves relative to notions of ethnicity, identity, and language. At times, the scope of the chronotopes participants invoke is so broad as to include all Turks beyond the limits of nation-states, while at times it is narrowed down to address local differences. Additionally, the invocation of certain chronotopes sometimes make ethnic and/or national identities salient centers of orientation, and some other times, the chronotopes they invoke lead to the construction of transnational and in-between identities. In re-conceptualizing diasporic identities, I argue for a focus on the multiple co-present dimensions of these identities and their interaction with individuals’ life trajectories and socialization histories.

Thanks to Lydia Catedral for her valuable comments on an earlier version of this chapter, and to the editor of the volume, Seyed Hadi Mirvahedi, for his useful suggestions. All errors are mine.

Appendix: Transcription Conventions

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Azeri

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Farsi

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English

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emphatic stress

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intervening material has been omitted

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brief pause

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laughter

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transcriber comment

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English translation within brackets is added by the author for clarification

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speaker overlap

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contiguous utterances

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utterance signaling more to come

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utterance final intonation

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lengthening of preceding sound