Xenophobic memories

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The function of memory and oral traditions in recuperations or constructions of complex historical narratives have recently become a focus of research by critics of literature and culture, notably in the area of the New English Literatures. What is most frequently foregrounded in these explorations is the positive, relief-like structure of memory in its selective and combinatory functions. The purpose of the studies presented in this volume will, however, emphasize aspects of otherness and outright xenophobia which frequently are excluded from constructed pasts. These elements are, nevertheless, powerful forces in the construction of personal histories as much as of cultural memory. Contributions in this volume explore this field in all its geographic and cultural richness, from Japan to Africa and from Australia and Asia to Canada; from Jewish fiction to travel literature as well as in obviously central texts of the English 'canon'.