Brill Sites of Exchange: European Crossroads and Faultlines: 103 (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 103)

Crossing borders – both physically and imaginatively – is part of our ‘nomadic’ postmodern identity, but transcultural and transnational exchanges have also played a major role in the centuries-long processes of hybridisation that helped to fashion the vast geographic, political and imaginative container of diversity we call Europe. This volume gathers together the work of scholars from several European countries in an attempt to encourage a collective reflection upon historical – and often ‘mythical’ – locations and landscapes, as well as upon the thresholds and faultlines that unite or separate them. The issues the volume tackles are delicate and complex, for the encounter of differences engenders both curiosity and suspicion and there is no easy way to create a new synthesis while respecting and promoting diversity. However, since Europe is inevitably a cultural and political entity ‘in the making’, Europeans should embrace the ‘great narrative’ of a ‘utopian project’, uniting their efforts to work towards a civilisation that is grounded on plurality and openness. About the Author Maurizio Ascari is a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bologna (Italy). He is the author of In the Palatial Chamber of the Mind (1997), La leggibilità del male (1998) and I linguaggi della tradizione (2005). He has also edited and translated works by Henry James, Katherine Mansfield, William Faulkner, Jack London and William Wilkie Collins. Adriana Corrado is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples, Italy. She has published several books, essays and articles, mostly in the field of Utopian literature and the English Gothic novel. To mention but a few: William Godwin illuminista romantico (1988); Da un’isola all’altra. Il pensier utopico nella narrativa inglese da Thomas More ad Aldous Huxley (1988); Mary Shelley, donna e scrittrice. Una rilettura (2000); Quattro storie di vampiri nell’Inghilterra dell’Ottocento, ed. by Adriana Corrado (2002); Dall’utopia all’utopismo. Percorsi tematici, ed. by Vita Fortunati, Raymond Trousson and Adriana Corrado (2003).