Transcultural Perspectives in Literature, Language, Art, and Politics - (Politics, Literature, & Film) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores the dynamics of transculturality through five sections: literature, translation and linguistics, cinema, communication, and politics. The contributors' diverse background in the Humanities allows for a wide enquiry into the far-reaching capabilities of transculturality both as an intellectual tool and as an identity in motion.

Book Synopsis

Transcultural Perspectives in Literature, Language, Art, and Politics is a contribution to the field of transcultural studies that has been gaining ground since the turn of the twentieth century. Embracing the transcultural lens in the humanities and social sciences, it demonstrates how the relevance, necessity and wide range of this approach can better enhance our understanding of the contemporary world as well as the past. Though all the contributors have a humanities background, they work in different research fields such as literary studies, linguistics, translation studies, cinema, or intellectual history, and use a variety of theoretical frames. A transdisciplinary framework also seems to be the most practical one to meet the challenges that transcultural phenomena and developments present. In sixteen chapters organized in five sections (literature, translation and linguistics, cinema, communication and politics), the volume explores the dynamics of transculturality at a micro and macro level, its benefits and limits. These studies suggest that transculturality is not only used as an intellectual working tool but also as an identity in motion that may represent a glimmer of hope in a world that seems to be in the throes of unreason and on the brink of self-induced destruction.

Review Quotes

"Cultures are not - and never have been - immutable, hermetically sealed entities. The sixteen essays, by an array of scholars from different countries, assembled by Aristi Trendel and Indra Karapetjana, make a valuable contribution to contemporary discussions of culture as dynamic, transnational, and translingual. To the parochialism and provincialism of disciplinary complacency, Transculturality offers a tonic transgression." --Steven G. Kellman, author, The Translingual Imagination and Nimble Tongues: Studies in Literary Translingualism

"Gathering an international array of scholars of American and world literature, translation, film, new media, and memory studies, Transcultural Perspectives in Literature, Language, Art and Politics exemplifies the vital critical conversations we need to be having in the 21st century. Alert to the perils of global military conflicts, the rise of right-wing nationalism, and the world refugee crisis, this volume is dedicated to the intellectually bracing and ethically invigorating proposition that no culture is closed or univocal. Smart, capably edited, theoretically incisive, and peppered with compelling case studies, the volume is a model of open and engaged transdisciplinary inquiry." --Arthur Redding, York University

"Transcultural Perspectives in Literature, Language, Art, and Politics provides a comprehensive pathway into transcultural multiplicity of the contemporary globalized world, covering both historical retrospection, topicalities, and highlighting the dynamics of development. Separated into five key sections - literature, translation and linguistics, cinema, communication, and politics - the volume constitutes an extensive and profound paradigm of analysis that reveals the dynamics of cultural and social processes in the modern world. It covers a wide and diverse spectrum of languages, regions and nations, from the Caribbean islands to the shores of the Baltics and beyond. Fourty-four outstanding contributors in sixteen chapters offers excellent insight into the current affairs of the field, combining theoretical issues and fascinating case studies." --Ojars Lams, Dr.philol., literary scholar, classicist and translator, professor of comparative literature at University of Latvia.

About the Author

Indra Karapetjana (Dr. Philol.) is professor in applied linguistics at the University of Latvia
Aristi Trendel is associate Professor at Le Mans University, France.