Culture, Transformation and Identity Travel, Fiction, Autobiography

Culture, Transformation and Identity captures the excitement of 19 creative and exploratory essays concerning physical and psychological journeys in search of knowledge and spiritual peace, escape from one's self or one's past, a new beginning or a search for roots and identity, adventure and conquest, business or trade. Opening out of a multidimensional movement of imagination and through cross-cultural dialogue, the book's contributors deal with the constructs of identity and nation, community and belonging, and a broadening of confined spaces. Renowned creative writers and critics examine: the relationship of travel to history and knowledge constructs in the Vedic texts * the transformation brought about by the spread of Buddhism * the pre-colonial and post-colonial points of view of representation of China * the intellectual shifts in the life of Gandhi * Iqbal's and Naipaul's dilemma of belonging and non-belonging * Hemingway's love for Spain and bullfighting * Lessing's view's about home, memory, and identity * Imtiaz Dharkar's multicultural experiences of Pakistan, India, and England * Gilbert's imbibing of life's precepts from India and Indonesia * and many more cultural transformations and identity crises. Traversing religion to politics, the personal to the national, different markers of culture such as cuisine to different markers of power such as trade and empathy, these essays express the immense possibilities of the human mind, as well as interpersonal strategies at work. [Subject: Literary Criticism, Cultural Studies]