Identity and transculture in Vice Versa.

Quebec's struggle between francophones and anglophones has deeply affected other immigrant communities' identitarian practices. Within Montreal's eighties and nineties nationalist environment some Italo-Quebecois worked as a bridge between the two groups through the transcultural magazine Vice Versa. The article presents some findings from a case study that looks at how Vice Versa challenged dominant perceptions of identity and its role in society. It assumes that identity is negotiated between individuals, that language and ethnicity are key factors for social mobility and symbolic power on the marketplace, and that these function through hegemony. Through its use of untranslated French, English and Italian and its articles' contents Vice Versa's discourse on transculture undermines the assumption that identity is necessary for social interaction and negotiates new categories that dissolve ethnic boundaries. Vice Versa is a unique example of the emergence of a counter-hegemonic movement questioning identity at its roots.