Collaboration, Exchange and Transformation in Literary and Cultural Practices

This collection of essays focuses on the transformational potential of intercultural conversations, which we interpret as dialogue and exchange with other cultures that is respectful of difference and open to constructing alternative perspectives, which can resist narrow, monolithic conceptions of history and identity, and instead forge new, exciting and transcendent modes of being. Central to the success of this process is a willingness to listen, an embrace of linguistic hybridity and a determination to remain open to the nuances of history. The themes, subjects, geographical locations and time periods covered in the essays are varied. Some of the essays focus on subjects who travel and as a result incorporate new perspectives and traditions into their lives and creative practices. Others reflect on their own complex, multiple identities and strive to develop new languages and value systems through which to express them. Others deliberately disrupt traditions and views of history in order to challenge their own cultural gaze and perspectives.