Exploring Identity in Literature and Life Stories: The Elusive Self

Product Description
Today, globalization, migration and political polarization complicate the individuals search for a cohesive identity, making identity formation and transformation key issues in everyday life. This collection of essays highlights a number of the dimensions of identity, including cultural hybridity, religion, ethnicity, profession, gender, sexuality, and childhood, and explores how they are thematized in different narratives. The stories discussed are set in Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, France, Germany, Great Britain, Haiti, India, Israel, Japan, Polynesia, Norway, Romania, Spain and South Africa, emphasizing todays international focus on identity. The majority of the contributions here focus on literary texts, while others investigate identity formations in interviews, language corpora, student reading logs, film, theatre and pathographies.
About the Author
Professor Guri Ellen Barstad teaches French literature at Østfold University College, Norway. She specializes in late 19th century French decadent authors and is the author of Mademoiselle de Maupin de Théophile Gautier. Arabesques et identités fluctuantes (2006). She has also co-edited a number of collections. Professor Karen Patrick Knutsen teaches English literature at Østfold University College, Norway. She works on contemporary English literature, including childrens literature. She is the author of Reciprocal Haunting: Pat Barkers Regeneration Trilogy (2010), and has co-edited a number of collections, including States of Decadence (2016), and Narratology Plus (2017). Professor Elin Nesje Vestli teaches German literature at Østfold University College, Norway. She has published on contemporary and early 19th century German and Austrian dramatists and specializes in contemporary German literature.