This book investigates the concept of the heroic, questions what it is that makes the national hero an indispensable appendage to any possible interpretation of national identity, and asks why scholars stop short before coming to terms with this elusive phenomenon. It finds answers by following heroic traditions in Scotland, Norway and Lithuania from the early modern period to the twentieth century. The book argues that heroic traditions - prevailing trends in situating heroes in national history - owe much to the early modern state. Both national heroes and the nation state had been conceived with a similar moral political mindset that looked for new ways to identify sources for commonality. The confluence of political theory and Realpolitik attested to three classical types of polities, i.e. civitas popularis (democracy), regnum (kingship), and optimatium (aristocracy), as found at that time in Scotland, Norway and Lithuania respectively. The author shows the varied impact these patterns had on heroic traditions. The long record of national heroes in Scotland is explained as a vestige of the legacy of civic humanism, the continuing traditions of the heroic king-lines in Norway are seen as a result of long-standing absolutism, while the belated arrival of national heroes in Lithuania is excused by the country's aristocratic if at times oligarchic past.

"The growing heterogeneity of Asian American and Asian diasporic voices has also given rise to variegated theoretical approaches to these literatures. This book attempts to encompass both the increasing awareness of diasporic and transnational issues, and more ""traditional"" analyses of Asian American culture and literature. Thus, the articles in this collection range from investigations into the politics of literary and cinematic representation, to ""digging"" into the past through ""literary archeology"", or analyzing how ""consequential"" bodies can be in recent literature by Asian American and Asian diasporic women writers. The book closes with an interview with critic and writer Shirley Lim, where she insightfully deals with these ""transnational, national, and personal"" issues. Elisabetta Marino is Assistant Professor of English literature at the University of Rome ""Tor Vergata"". Her main fields of interest are Asian American and Asian British literature, children's literature, Italian American literature. Begoña Simal is Assistant Professor of English literature at the Universidade da Coruña, Spain. She has published critical work on both Asian American literature and comparative ""cross-ethnic"" studies. "

From New National to World English Literature offers a personal perspective on the evolution of a major cultural movement that began with decolonization, continued with the assertion of African, West Indian, Commonwealth, and other literatures, and has evolved through postcolonial to world or international English literature. Bruce King, one of the pioneers in the study of the new national literatures and still an active literary critic, discusses the personalities, writers, issues, and contexts of what he considers the most important change in culture since modernism. In this selection of forty-five essays and reviews, King discusses issues such as the emergence and aesthetics of African literature, the question of the existence of a “Nigerian literature”, the place of the new universities in decolonizing culture, the contrasting models of American and Irish literatures, and the changing nature of exile and diasporas. He emphasizes themes such as traditionalism versus modernism, the dangers of cultural assertion, and the relationships between nationalism and internationalism. Special attention is given to Nigerian, West Indian, Australian, Indian, and Pakistani literature.

The editors of this volume have combined their expertise in discourse, contradiction, minority and diversity studies to suggest a change of perspective from categorisations into societal minorities and majorities towards an analysis of marginalising and centralising discourses. For this purpose, we have gathered interdisciplinary-minded authors from linguistics, literary and religious studies, political and historical sciences. Their contributions focus on contradictions of religious and national belonging as well as intersections of religion and nation in many different regions of the world from the 18th century until today. While illustrating the diversity and contradictions of religious and national belonging across time and space, the chapters of the book contribute to an understanding of the dynamics of questions of belonging and the associated constant renegotiations of power within these discursive processes.

The changes brought about by the World Wide Web and the explosion of electronic media have called into question many of the assumptions on which national bibliographies have been founded. The need was growing of a route map to navigate through unchartes territories. After a preparation period of several years, IFLA ́s Bibliography Section endorsed this large set of guidelines. They seek to help national bibliographic agencies improve their bibliographic services. Many examples and references are included.

This volume introduces key concepts for a trans/national expansion in the study of culture. Using translation as an analytical category, it explores what is translatable and untranslatable between nation-specific approaches such as British/American cultural studies, German Kulturwissenschaften and other traditions in studying culture. The range of articles included in the book covers both theoretical reflections and specific case studies that analyze the tensions and compatibilities amongst contemporary perspectives on the study of culture. By testing various key concepts – translation, cultural transfer, travelling concepts – this volume reflects on an essential vocabulary and common points of reference for scholars seeking new frameworks and methodologies for the foundation of a trans/national study of culture that is commensurate with the entangled nature of our world society.