Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature CROSS Readings in Post/Colonial ULTURES Literatures and Cultures in English 167 SERIES EDITORS Gordon Collier Bénédicte Ledent Geoffrey Davis (Giessen) (Liège) (Aachen) CO-FOUNDING EDITOR Hena Maes–Jelinek Transcultural Identities in Contemporary Literature Edited by Irene Gilsenan Nordin, Julie Hansen, and Carmen Zamorano Llena Amsterdam - New York, NY 2013 Cover Image Ilia Rogatchevski, Prosopagnosia (2013; digitally manipulated collage, 21 x 29 cm) The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-3735-9 E-Book ISBN: 978-94-012-0987-8 © Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2013 Printed in The Netherlands Table of Contents ________________________ ________________________ (cid:97) Acknowledgements vii Introduction: Conceptualizing Transculturality in Literature IRENE GILSENAN NORDIN, JULIE HANSEN, AND CARMEN ZAMORANO LLENA ix A NEW KIND OF MIGRATION Transnational Movements and the Limits of Citizenship: Redefinitions of National Belonging in Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland CARMEN ZAMORANO LLENA 3 Forging a Transcultural Identity as a Russian-American Writer: Lara Vapnyar and Cultural Adaptation KAREN L. RYAN 27 Childhood, Migration, and Identity in Chris Cleave’s The Other Hand CARLY MCLAUGHLIN 47 TRANSCENDING THE NATION Cosmopolitanism and Citizenship: Identities and Affiliations in Monica Ali’s In the Kitchen CHRISTOPH HOUSWITSCHKA 71 Constructions of Transcultural Subjectivity: Going Beyond Nationalism and Ethnicity in A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain MATS TEGMARK 93 Cosmopolitan Perspectives: Globalization and Transnationalization in Contemporary German Literature KRISTIN REBIEN 113 CRITIQUES OF MULTICULTURALISM Beyond the Multicultural Fairytale: Insider–Outsiders, the Politics of Violence, and the Transnational Turn in Canadian Literature PILAR CUDER–DOMÍNGUEZ 137 Beyond Multiculturalism: Invisible Men and Transculturality in The Human Stain andErasure MALIN LIDSTRÖM BROCK 159 America After 9/11: Ethnic Diversity and Patriotism in John Updike’s Terrorist KATHERINA DODOU 177 THE INTERACTION OF LANGUAGES IN TRANSLINGUAL TEXTS Literary Language and the Translated Self of Assia Djebar STEFAN HELGESSON 203 Translingual and Transcultural Patterns in Francophone Literature of the Maghreb ERIC SELLIN 223 Hsia Yü’s Translingual Transculturalism from Memoranda to Pink Noise J.B. ROLLINS 245 Notes on Contributors 267 Index 273 Acknowledgements ________________________ ________________________ (cid:97) T HE IDEA FOR THIS BOOK arose from discussions within an interdis- ciplinary research group focusing on transculturality at Dalarna Uni- versity in Falun, Sweden. The editors and some of the contributors are active within this group, while other contributors are based at universities in Asia, Europe, and North America. The editors are grateful to members of the research group who have not contributed to this volume, but nonetheless enriched it through their insightful comments and ideas. The research area on Culture, Identity, and Representation at Dalarna University granted funding which made the realization of this volume possible. We also wish to express our thanks to Gordon Collier, co-editor and technical editor of the Cross/ Cultures series. (cid:97) Introduction Conceptualizing Transculturality in Literature IRENE GILSENAN NORDIN, JULIE HANSEN, AND CARMEN ZAMORANO LLENA ________________________ ________________________ (cid:97) Globalization and the Redefinition of Culture G LOBALIZING PROCESSES have led, in recent decades, to critical re- evaluations of the ways in which ‘culture’ has traditionally been understood. Global capitalism, worldwide diffusion and populariza- tion of communication technologies, as well as increased mobility of people, information, and consumer goods, are some of the forces that account for a widespread intensification of cultural exchanges. In this context, past defini- tions of collective and individual identities as essentially monocultural are in- creasingly viewed as inadequate to describe the way people perceive them- selves and the world they live in. Instead, the concept of transculturality has often been adopted to describe the diverse and productive reality of processes of identity-formation that take place at cultural interfaces. The phenomenon of transculturality is understood here as the formation of multifaceted, fluid identities resulting from diverse cultural encounters. This idea is not new, of course.1 As Wolfgang Welsch, a leading theoretician of transculturality, remarks, Montaigne, Novalis, Whitman, and Nietzsche all serve as examples of individuals whose transcultural experiences shaped their individual identities. There is a significant difference, however, between earlier manifestations of transculturality and the contemporary situation. Whereas 1 Wolfgang Welsch, “Transculturality: The Puzzling Form of Cultures Today,” in Spaces of Culture: City, Nation, World, ed. Mike Featherstone & Scott Lash (Thou- sand Oaks CA & London: Sage, 1999):198. x TRANSCULTURAL IDENTITIES (cid:97) transcultural experiences used to be the privilege of an elite, they are now a reality for a significant part of the world’s population, due to the intensified volume and frequency of migration, information exchange through new chan- nels of communication technology, and global economic interdependencies. The concept of transculturality initially developed within anthropological, sociological, and philosophical discourses in relation to these macrolevel changes.2 In these fields, transculturality is used to describe the complex con- figuration of modern cultures. Former monological identifications of a single culture with a specific nation-state have been overridden by enmeshed webs of intercultural relations, developing both within and beyond the borders of the nation-state. The concept of transculturality has also emerged as an alter- native to the limitations of multiculturality and interculturality. These latter concepts have been used to describe the multiplicity of forms of cultural life that coexist within a specific society. However, as Welsch argues, both fail to overcome a Herderian understanding of culture as a unified entity and are therefore unable to address problems and challenges that arise in pluricultural societies. By contrast, the concept of transculturality fosters an inclusive, rather than exclusive, understanding of culture as characterized by diffe- rences; it emphasizes the need for groups to identify common ground among cultures, and the need for the individual to acknowledge the foreign within oneself in order to be able to comprehend others. According to Welsch, “it is precisely when we no longer deny, but rather perceive, our inner trans- culturality, that we will become capable of dealing with outer transcul- turality.”3 Imaginative literature offers a powerful means of exploring transcultural experience and grappling with the challenges it poses to individuals and soci- eties alike. The very act of reading literary texts is potentially a transcultural experience, in that it invites the reader to identify with the perspectives of fic- tional characters from unfamiliar geographical locations, as well as from a 2 Some relevant texts in these fields are: Wolfgang Welsch, “Transkulturalität: Lebensformen nach der Auflösung der Kulturen,” Information Philosophie 2 (1992): 5–20;Transcultural Realities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cross-Cultural Rela- tions, ed. Virginia H. Milhouse, Molefi Kete Asante & Peter Nwosu (Thousand Oaks CA & London: Sage, 2001); Hans Jörg Sandkühler, Transculturality: Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006); and Transcultural Americas/Amé- riques Transculturelles, ed. Afef Benessaieh (Ottawa: U of Ottawa P,2010). 3 Welsch, “Transculturality: The Puzzling Form of Cultures Today,” 201.