Transcultural identities in contemporary literature pdf download

A multicultural state of being in the world thus identifies difference within difference. In traditional liberal versions of multiculturalism, tradition and culture are valorised, whereas a multicultural postmodernism shows how traditions are manipulated by the powerful to disempower the marginalised read ethnic and racial groups. This approach provides a critical insight into how racial and ethnic others have formed social struggles that can straddle other class and gender conflicts p.

The Intercultural Subject While the theorisation of the multicultural subject presented here is conceptualised within disciplines of intercultural communication, sociology and cultural studies, the depiction of the intercultural has been particularly evident in the fields of hermeneutics and philosophy Marotta Although originating in different fields of knowledge, the following discussion will demonstrate how the intercultural, both as subject position and as an interpretative approach, has close affinities with the radical accounts of the multicultural.

As a theoretical perspective, the intercultural can be understood through the lens of intercultural hermeneutics Ariarajah Such a perspective entails a theory and method of understanding that occurs cross- culturally; it entails a willingness and, one would assume, an ability to move across cultural boundaries.

To be intercultural thus means resisting universalising practices, while adopting particular viewpoints in a non-essentialist manner Mall , pp. The intercultural moment, at least for Bernstein, manifests itself through a paradoxical situation where one adopts universalising identifying commonalities and particularising acknowledging distinctions practices.

Similar to the radical version of the multicultural, the intercultural subject is critical of cultural boundaries and proposes an alternative social epistemology which transcends and criticises the ideology of dualism and essentialism. This alternative epistemology — it is claimed — allows scholars to adopt a complex interpretative model that effectively captures, but is also critical of, our multicultural global world.

In the hands of these philosophers, the intercultural subject adopts a critical philosophical framework that fosters an alternative mode of being in the world that is sensitive to sameness and difference while acknowledging the contested nature of these categories. The Transcultural Subject Studies on the transcultural person also echo some of the key features of in- between subjectivity.

Current migration scholarship has seen an increasing emphasis on the transcultural nature of cross-cultural encounters Harutyunyan , Hoerder, , Hope, , Meinhof and Triandafyllidou , Triandafyllidou, , Schmitt Nevertheless, these studies provide little conceptual clarity and ignore the multiple meanings underlying the transcultural.

He coined the term in in his book Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar. Ortiz replaces the idea of acculturation with transculturalism because, unlike the former, the transcultural does not mean assimilating into another culture. However, the contact and the subsequent mixing between cultures is not always an equal process. Colonialism effectively epitomises this process , p.

Consequently, the process of transculturalism is an ambivalent and dangerous process, especially for those subordinate cultures , p. Here the transcultural comes close to the traditional accounts of the in-between cultural subject found in the work of early anthropologist and sociologists. Ortiz uses the example of tobacco to illustrate how its meaning changed as a consequence of contact between firstly Indians and African slaves and then between Spaniards and Indians.

The Spaniards originally saw it as a symbol of the devil and witchery, but then appropriated it for both medicinal and economic reasons. Thus the signification of tobacco changed as a consequence of cultural contact. Influenced by the anti-essentialist paradigm, recent work highlights the transgressive and non-essentialist nature of the transcultural while minimising its darker side.

The seminal paper by Welsch can be credited for overemphasising the positive dimension of the transcultural and the non-essentialist turn in transcultural scholarship. Critical of the traditional notion of culture expressed in the work of Herder and T. Eliot, which views it as an isolated and homogenised entity, Welsch argues that modern societies are vertically and horizontally differentiated and that such an essentialist view of culture is politically dangerous because it leads to exclusionary practices and does not reflect existing contemporary social and cultural configurations , pp.

In contrast to the inherent affinities between the intercultural and multicultural highlighted in this chapter, Welsch argues that the traditional view of culture, however, continues to exist in the contemporary understandings of interculturality and multiculturality.

Welsch maintains that there are clear differences between these terms. For example, although the intercultural seeks to reduce the tension between cultures and encourages cultures to understand and recognise each other, it still conceives cultures as separate islands or spheres. The transcultural reflects the interconnectedness of cultures at the societal level, but also at the level of cultural identity.

The transcultural subject is a cultural hybrid which interconnects and integrates various cultural forms.

Others, like the Russian professor of literature and cultural theory Mikhail Epstein, adopt a metaphysical approach to conceptualising the transculture. Epstein conceives of the transculture as a new form of liberation from the prison house of culture and language.

He directs his criticism, on the one hand, at globalism and indirectly Pan-Americanism, which supposedly creates a homogenous and conformist culture and, on the other hand, multiculturalism, especially its American manifestation, because it conceives of different cultures as closed and incommensurable entities.

Ordering from Brill. Author Newsletter. Piracy Reporting Form. How to Manage your Online Holdings. Sales Managers and Sales Contacts. Ordering From Brill. LibLynx for Selected Online Resources. Discovery Services. Online User and Order Help. MARC Records. Titles No Longer Published by Brill. Latest Key Figures. Latest Financial Press Releases and Reports. Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Share Information. Specialty Products.

Catalogs, Flyers and Price Lists. Open Access. Open Access for Authors. Open Access and Research Funding. Open Access for Librarians. Open Access for Academic Societies. About us. Stay updated. Corporate Social Responsiblity. Investor Relations. Review a Brill Book. Reference Works.

Primary source collections. Open Access Content. Contact us. Get BOOK. Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature. In recent decades, globalization has led to increased mobility and interconnectedness. For a growing number of people, contemporary life entails new local and transnational interdependencies which transform individual and collective allegiances. Contemporary literature often reflects these changes through its exploration of migrant experiences and transcultural identities.