Through contemporary theories of cosmopolitanism and analyses of literary texts such as Heart of Darkness, Lilith's Brood, and Moby-Dick, this book explores the cosmopolitan impulses behind the literary imagination. Patell argues that cosmopolitanism...
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Through contemporary theories of cosmopolitanism and analyses of literary texts such as Heart of Darkness, Lilith's Brood, and Moby-Dick, this book explores the cosmopolitan impulses behind the literary imagination. Patell argues that cosmopolitanism regards human difference as an opportunity to be embraced rather than a problem to be solved. "Patell's cosmopolitan readings of a wide range of works from Shakespeare's Othello to Claude Lanzmann's Shoah cover topics from historical fiction to animal studies. Addressing the role of world literature and multiculturalism, this pedagogically helpful book offers a fuller understanding of how to approach 'global texts' and their contexts in the challenging yet creative tension between cultural familiarity and difference." - Werner Sollors, Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, USA.
