Violent Waters: Literary Border Crossings in a Global Age / / Alexandra Campana.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Ebook Package English 2020
• VerfasserIn: Campana, Alexandra,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Interdisciplinary German Cultural Studies , 27
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (VIII, 274 p.)

The experience of witnessing and undertaking border crossings has become a pillar of the contemporary human condition. In order to respond to our global, multidimensional social reality, writers need to generate innovative forms of narration that expand the confines of literary tradition. This study discusses four types of border crossing (migration, intercultural dialogue, multicultural identities, military invasion) and presents literary aesthetics that unfold in Algeria, China, France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, the UK, and the USA. These analyses move from the fall of the Iron Curtain to the rise of the internet, and from the turn of the millennium to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Positioned in the field of comparative literature, this book draws upon an extensive background of theoretical thought (e.g. Adorno/Horkheimer, Arendt, Dawkins, Fanon, Freud, Kristeva, Žižek) and reaches into other academic disciplines (such as religious studies). Border crossings thus serve as both theme and methodology, which not only leads to a new definition of post-modern writing, but also underlines literature's relevance in a global society driven by public discourse.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Introduction: Water and Unicorns. On Contemporary Fiction -- Chapter 1. Migration. Moving through Images and Words: Herta Müller’s The Passport (Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt, 1986) and Gish Jen’s Typical American (1991) -- Chapter 2. Intercultural Dialogue. Communication across Space and Time in the New Millennium: Hugo Loetscher’s The Mandarin’s Eyes (Die Augen des Mandarin, 1999) -- Chapter 3. Defining the Self. Identity Formation in a Post-colonial World: Martin R. Dean’s My Fathers (Meine Väter, 2003) and Habib Tengour’s This Particular Tartar 2 (Besagter Tatar 2 / Ce Tatar-là 2, 1997–1998) -- Chapter 4. Invasion. Religion, War, and the Politics of Narration: Ian McEwan’s Saturday (2005) -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index