Bridging East and West explores the literary evolution of one of Ukraine's foremost modernist writers, Ol'ha Kobylianska, who was a major contributor in the intellectual debates of her time. Investigating themes of feminism, populism, Nietzscheanism, nationalism, and fascism in her works, this study presents an alternative intellectual genealogy in turn-of-the-century European arts and letters whose implications reach far beyond the field of Ukrainian studies. Rather than repeating various narratives about modernism as a radical response to nineteenth-century bourgeois culture or an aesthetic of fragmentation, this study highlights the fissures and fusions inherent to turn-of-the-century thought. For feminist scholars, Bridging East and West makes accessible a thorough account of a central, yet overlooked, woman writer who served as a model and a contributor within a major cultural tradition. For those working in Victorian studies or comparative fascism and for those interested in Nietzsche and his influence on European intellectuals, Kobylians'ka emerges in this study as an unlikely, but no less active, trailblazer in the social and aesthetic theories that would define European debates about culture, science, and politics in the first half of the twentieth century. For those interested in questions of transnationalism and intersectionality, this study's discussion of Kobylians'ka's hybrid cultural identity and philosophical program exemplifies cultural interchange and irreducible complexities of cultural identity.

Dating from 1919 to 1940, these letters and telegrams are being published for the first time in English in their entirety. They manage to capture the essence of Tagore and Rolland’s friendship in their struggle with the conflict between nationalism and human conscience. This volume also presents three important conversations the two engaged in at various points in time, as well as letters by Rathindranath Tagore and others, and lays out the journey of these two writers towards the imaging of a different world outside jingoistic politics. This correspondence presents the finest exchange of thought between the East and the West, and scripts the intellectual history of early twentieth century.

Bridging East and West explores the literary evolution of Ol’ha Kobylians'ka, one of Ukraine’s foremost modernist writers. Investigating themes of feminism, populism, Nietzscheanism, nationalism, and fascism in her works, this study presents an alternative intellectual genealogy in turn-of-the-century European arts and letters whose implications reach far beyond the field of Ukrainian studies. For feminist scholars, Bridging East and West makes accessible a thorough account of a central, yet overlooked, woman writer who served as a model and a contributor within a major cultural tradition. For those working in Victorian studies or comparative fascism and for those interested in Nietzsche and his influence on European intellectuals, Kobylians’ka emerges in this study as an unlikely, but no less active, trailblazer in the social and aesthetic theories that would define European debates about culture, science, and politics in the first half of the twentieth century. For those interested in questions of transnationalism and intersectionality, this study’s discussion of Kobylians’ka’s hybrid cultural identity and philosophical program exemplifies cultural interchange and irreducible complexities of cultural identity.

In the summer of 1888, Ameen Fares Rihani (1876-1940) left the shores of his native Lebanon to begin a new life in the bustling metropolis of New York City. Few could have guessed at the time that the young Rihani would soon become one of the most famous and distinctive Arab writers of the era, transforming tales from his crossings between East and West into a clarion call for understanding and cooperation between a rising world power and an Arab world that was suspended between cultural renaissance and political recolonization. Less than a year after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the Ameen Rihani Institute and the American University Center for Global Peace convened a distinguished group of Arab, American, and European scholars for an international symposium in Washington, D.C. Inspired by the conviction that Rihani's humane vision still addresses many of the most vitally important issues in global affairs, the participants in this symposium prepared stimulating writings on every facet of Rihani's intellectual journey, literary career, political advocacy, and life as a protagonist of Arab-American understanding. The result is this remarkable book demonstrating the extraordinary nature of Ameen Rihani's work as a cultural ambassador; the depth of his affinities for such writers as Carlyle, Emerson, Thoreau, and Tolstoy; and the enduring relevance of his commitments to tolerance, universalism, reconciliation, and peace.