Publisher's Synopsis
Crossings and Passages in Genre and Culture scrutinizes the fascinating and diverse wanderings forms of artistic expression, in particular literature, have taken through different cultural fields, both within and outside a specific geographical region or historical epoque. Approaching the topic with a flexible genre concept and avoiding any superficial group classification of texts, the common focus of the essays collected in this volume is to explore the dimensions and potentiality which cultural encounters release in the field of genre transformation. Apart from broader transcultural aspects, a further point of interest is to shed light on the transgeneric, intertextual and intermedial crossings and passages, transferences. The scholars contributing to this volume scrutinize in their essays a variety of literary forms and texts which comprise the specula form, travelogue, poetry, prose poem, the novel, holy writs, etc. Juxtaposing texts and genres in cultures and languages such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, German, and other European languages the volume pursues a comparative approach necessary to considering and understanding the wanderings and transformations of art forms. The discussion of Mediaeval texts shows that these processes are by no means restricted to the contemporary emergence of global literary systems. This book is meant for scholars of comparative literature, and those interested in research on literature of the far East, the Middle East and European literatures as well as in literary theory.
