Caroline De Wagter – författare

This critical anthology seeks to reassess the complex cultural and literary negotiations taking place between Europe and its margins in an increasingly globalized age. The somewhat paradoxical title of this volume playfully reverses traditional views of the relationship between Europe and its Others, reflecting the awareness that former European cultural centers could become tomorrow's new literary margins. This collection reevaluates the enduring impact of European cultural and literary traditions on various postcolonial and contemporary literatures, not only in world regions that used to be called the new margins of Europe but also in the former center, i.e. Europe itself. As the contributions gathered in this book suggest, the current relationship between European culture and its previous Others is no longer marked by unilateral opposition. Cette anthologie critique tente de redefinir la complexite des negociations culturelles et litteraires entre l'Europe et ses marges a une epoque de globalisation grandissante. Dans un esprit ludique, le titre quelque peu paradoxal de ce volume renverse les conceptions traditionnelles de la relation entre l'Europe et ses Autres , suggerant de la sorte que les anciens centres culturels de l'Europe pourraient bien devenir les nouvelles marges litteraires du futur. Ce collectif evalue sous un angle neuf la perennite de l'impact des traditions litteraires et culturelles europeennes sur diverses litteratures postcoloniales et contemporaines, non seulement dans des regions du monde autrefois considerees comme les marges de l'Europe, mais egalement en Europe, le centre culturel de jadis. Comme l'indiquent les textes reunis dans cet ouvrage, la relation actuelle entre l'Europe et ses anciens Autres n'est plus caracterisee par une opposition unilaterale.

This book, the first cross-cultural study of post-1970s anglophone Canadian and American multi-ethnic drama, invites assessment of the thematic and aesthetic contributions of this theater in today’s globalized culture. A growing number of playwrights of African, South and East Asian, and First Nations heritage have engaged with manifold socio-political and aesthetic issues in experimental works combining formal features of more classical European dramatic traditions with such elements of ethnic culture as ancestral music and dance, to interrogate the very concepts of theatricality and canonicity. Their “mouths on fire” (August Wilson), these playwrights contest stereotyped notions of authenticity. In¬spired by songs of anger, passion, experience, survival, and regeneration, the plays analyzed bespeak a burning desire to break the silence, to heal and empower. Foregrounding questions of hybridity, diaspora, cultural memory, and nation, this comparative study includes discussion of some twenty-five case studies of plays by such authors as M.J. Kang, August Wilson, Suzan–Lori Parks, Djanet Sears, Chay Yew, Padma Viswanathan, Rana Bose, Diane Glancy, and Drew Hayden Taylor. Through its cross-cultural and cross-national prism, “Mouths on Fire with Songs” shows that multi-ethnic drama is one of the most diverse and dynamic sites of cultural production in North America today.