Introduction: Transnational/Transartistic Journeys

In the past two decades we have witnessed a series of epistemological shifts, springing from traditional area studies and departing from nationally bounded fields. These moves seem to dislocate and problematize categories of identity by focusing on translocality and by calling attention to processes of displacement, dispersion, objects and ideas, and to the new cultural and imaginary territories that these mobilizations effect. Such formulations, while historically situated, illuminate flows and favour transformation, as opposed to producing ontological crystallisations. This issue will explore the view that the creation of new cultural phenomena may be achieved, in the richest of ways, through the mixing of genres and the crossing of media. It will seek to investigate how various contemporary art forms serve to express, envision, challenge and renegotiate Francophone identities that reach across cultures.