Contested Communities

The study of European literatures was once characterized by single-language, nation-bound enquiry, but in the context of globalization the transnational and multi-lingual aspect of these literatures has come to the fore. The forces driving this change range from acknowledgement of ancestral and regional enclaves within nation states to migration between nation states, and from beyond Europe, giving rise to minority communities across the continent. This wide-ranging volume spans literatures from Galicia to Greenland, written in and between languages ranging from Basque, Welsh and Breton, to French, Italian and German, and in genres that include theatre, narrative prose and experimental poetry. By viewing Europe from its peripheries and investigating diversity both between and within European nations, this book presents small, minority and minor literatures as a continuum along which notions of community are constantly affirmed, contested and redefined. Kate Averis teaches European literatures at the Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia. Margaret Littler is Professor Emerita of Contemporary German Culture at the Univ ersity of Manchester. Godela Weiss-Sussex is Professor of Modern German Literature at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, London and Fellow of King's College Cambridge.