Ex-Centric Narratives : Identity,Multivocality and Cross-Culturalism

Drawing on North American, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies, the volume proposed here addresses the construction of identity in relation to place(s), ethnicities and culture(s), and sets out to explore the ambivalences, fluctuations and modalities which highlight such a process while paving the path for the fashioning of global identities. Moreover, it presents the identity politics and poetics of diverse authors and artists in an attempt to recover the discursive techniques employed in their identification processes and assess the significance of cultural agency in a national, multinational and global context. The American context of today is the jumping off point for a global discussion of identity and cultural change that speaks to the emergence of the 2nd and 3rd world as new cultural and social avatars. Description: The volume is framed within the field of American and cross-cultural studies. With the peripheral having now become the centre of contemporary culture, this volume examines cultural and literary diversities that have emerged from the reciprocal traffic of ideas and influences between cultures, politics, aesthetics and disciplines, with an emphasis on identity as a site of crisis, fragmentation as well as re-evaluation of cultural practices and beliefs. All essays in the proposed volume address the concepts of de-centrism and ex-centrism within a globalized context, where borders between the canonical and the other are being contested. Within this context, individual cultures and individual writers and artists are viewed by the authors in the volume as participants in an intercultural and multiple exchange of experiences as well as perspectives, in their attempt to move beyond boundaries. The volume will also be accompanied by a detailed introductory chapter aiming to shed light on the theoretical context that frames all the papers contained in it, as well as introduce the readers to the main arguments and perspectives as regards the shaping of identity politics within a contemporary inter-cultural, cross-cultural and, to an extent, international context. The conclusion at the end of the volume will offer an evaluation of the arguments presented in it as well as focus on the emergence of new patterns and arguments in relation to the future understanding of identity politics. The originality of the volume lies in its bringing together papers of an interdisciplinary nature which engage in a cross-cultural discussion of identity politics, which is the main issue touched upon here, in a local as well as global context and culture. This is exactly where the educational potential of this volume resides: in the promotion of an inter-cultural and cross-cultural dialogue. The distinguished contributors and editors intention has been to shed light on the multifacetedness of identity; as a result, readers will approach the volume s central topic from various perspectives and points of view. The idea is to encourage everyone who reads this book view identity as a constantly transforming concept, being part of a national, transnational and international territory. Part 1: CONTESTING AMERICN IDENTITY Part 2: NEGOTIATING ETHNIC IDENTITES Part 3: GLOBAL IDENTITIES This work covers aspects of Globalization,Culture and Identity,American Studies,Ethnic Studes, American Literature, Politics of Race and Gender in American Literature, Cultural Studies