Mapping Identity Politics: Differences and Bridges

Mapping Identity Politics: Differences and Bridges addresses the complex issues related to
defining identity against the background of the contemporary (post)modern social and
cultural space, analyzing the past and present development of the concept through the lens
of a multiple perspective. It comprises ten studies, each of them shedding light on the
debate from a different theoretical standpoint, from intergenerational and ethnic conflicts to
political ideologies, and from gender-based inequality to the intricate discrepancies between
individual and collective identity. The main focus falls upon two interconnected elements:
the difficulties inherent in defining identity, and the evolution of the concept within the
dynamics of the current cultural environment, marked by globalization and shaped by the
information and media overload. The book examines the ever-evolving discourse of
identity, which involves negotiation, metamorphosis and tensions, as well as a subtle
interaction between the individual and the community.

From Table of Contents:
• Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman: Violence in Writing and Writing as Violence
• Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”: the ars poetica au féminin?
• Transformed identities – Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People
• Dual Identity. The American West between Reality and Fiction
• Mapping Identity through Conflicting Political Ideologies in The Secret Agent