postScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies ISSN: 2456-7507 <postscriptum.co.in> Online – Open Access – UGC Approved * Volume IV Number ii (July 2019) Special Issue on Transnational and Transcultural Spaces Lahiri, Himadri. “Transnationalism and Diaspora:...” pp. 116-130 Distinguished Guest Article Transnationalism and Diaspora: ‘Awkward Dance Partners’? Himadri Lahiri Professor of English, Netaji Subhas Open University The author was Professor in the Department of English and Culture Studies at the University of Burdwan. He is currently associated with Netaji Subhas Open University as Professor of English. He has published Diaspora Theory and Transnationalism (2019), Asians in America: Diasporic Perspectives in Literature (2011) and edited the volume Literary Transactions in a Globalized Context: Multi-Ethnicity, Gender and the Market Place (2011). He has also co-edited Contemporary Indian English Poetry and Drama: Changing Canons and Responses (2019), Violence and Its Representations (2012) and Ethnic Literatures of America: Diaspora and Intercultural Studies (2005). His articles have been published in various national and international journals and anthologies. His areas of interest include diaspora studies, American literature, Indian English literature and twentieth-century British poetry. Abstract In view of the unprecedented technological progress that has resulted in ‘time-space compression,’ we have seen a spurt in the worldwide movement of human beings and capital. Such movements have impacts on political, economic and socio-cultural lives of individuals, communities and even on inter-state relationships. In critical parlance two prominent terms – transnationalism and diaspora – are used to describe this movement of man and money. The terms are often used interchangeably. However, it has been argued that they have their own ‘distinct birth marks,’ particular areas of emphases, and their own evolutionary histories. Dealing with issues related to cross-border migration, their interests often overlap. Diaspora, it has been asserted, is an old term, while transnationalism, as a phenomenon, appears in the 1990s to address certain emerging issues arising in the age of Globalisation. Diaspora and transnationalism have been regarded as ‘awkward dance partners,’ a phrase that points out both the existence of collaborative partnership and the presence of uneasiness in their relationship. This article makes an attempt to define the terms from the vantage point of our time and figure out their relationship. It also suggests that they should be regarded as cognate terms to analyse the growing impact of cross-border flow of human beings as well as economic and cultural resources. Keywords diaspora, transnationalism, border, network relationship, hypermodernity * This article was submitted to this journal before 14.06.2019.