Imagined Identities: Identity Formation In The Age Of Globalization [Paperback]

This collection of essays, by scholars from various disciplines and regions of the world, discusses both the construction and deconstruction of identity in its engagement with culture, ethnicity, and nationhood. The authors explore the tension resulting from the desire to create a new cultural space for identities that are at once national, regional, linguistic, and religious, yet also attempt to encompass a political and geographic whole within designated areas.

The volume comes at a most opportune moment, providing much-needed background information and insight into current events. The chapter on Odessa by Abel Polese analyzes the intricacies of Russian-Ukrainian relations, while the one by Lu?s Cl?udio Villafa?e G. Santos examines the complexities of being American. The chapter on the formation of statehood in India and Egypt by Samaa Gamie takes the reader to the sources of recent developments in those two countries, while Samer Abboud discusses the current political situation in Lebanon through a historical survey of Hizballah. Fouad N. Ibrahim and Barbara Ibrahim bring a different angle to the upheavals in the region with a chapter on the Christian Copts of Egypt.

Also of topical interest is the chapter by Pramod Nayar on the development of the transnational Indian novel, putting on stage an Eastern cultural parasite disrupting the postcolonial scene in the West. Dorothea Fischer-Hornung recounts how a popular Turkish-German tv series mirrors the present multicultural German society; Yiorgos Kalegoras discusses the significance of ethnic interface in the American entertainment industry; G?n?l Pultar examines a cookbook-memoir to study the culture of the Armenians of Turkey and their place in that country; and Simona Sangiorgio revisits theme parks to question the way they may be reshaping identities.