Description
Book Synopsis While multicultural composition of nations has become a catchword in public debates, few educators, not to speak of the general public, realize that cultural interaction was the rule throughout history. Starting with the Islam-Christian-Jewish Mediterranean world of the early modern period, this volume moves to the empires of the 18th and 19th centuries and the African Diaspora of the Black Atlantic. It ends with questioning assumptions about citizenship and underlying homogeneous "received" cultures through the analysis of the changes in various literatures. This volume clearly shows that the life-worlds of settled as well as migrant populations in the past were characterized by cultural change and exchange whether conflictual or peaceful. Societies reflected on such change in their literatures as well as in their concepts of citizenship.
Table of ContentsRevising the Monocultural Nation-State Paradigm: An Introduction to Transcultural Perspectives; 1.Transcultural States, Nations, and People. Part I: Transcultural Pasts in the Mediterranean World and Transalpine Europe; 2.A Legendary Place of Encounter: The Convivencia of Moors, Jews, and Christians in Medieval Spain; 3.Religious Communities and Ethnic Groups under Imperial Sway: Ottoman and Habsburg Lands in Comparison; 4.National Movements and Imperial Ethnic Hegemonies in Austria, 1867-1918. Part II: Global Interconnections: Black Atlantic, Chinese Diaspora, White Empire; 5.The Black Atlantic in the Construction of the "Western" World: Alternative Approaches to the "Europeanization" of the Americas; 6.Chinese Diaspora in Occidental Societies: Canada and Europe; 7.Labor Diasporas in Comparative Perspective: Polish and Italian Migrants Workers in the Atlantic World between the 1870s and the 1920s; 8. Dialectics of Empire and Complexities of Culture: British Men in India, Indian Experiences of Britain. Part III: Cultural Belongings and Citizenship; 9.From State Constructions to Individual Opportunities: The Historical Development of Citizenship in Europe; 10.Place-Sensitive Citizenship: The Canadian Citizenship Regime until 1945; 11.The Diversification of Canadian Literature in English.
