Notions of Otherness: Literary Essays from Abraham Cahan to Dacia Maraini

Description

One can approach the notion of otherness or alterity in various ways: politically, aesthetically, ethically, culturally, religiously and sexually. Writing in Saylor.org, Lilia Melani defined the other as an individual who is perceived by the group as not belonging, as being different in some fundamental way. Any stranger becomes the Other. The Other in a society may have few or no legal rights, may be characterised as less intelligent or as immoral, and may even be regarded as sub-human. The collection of essays Notions of Otherness addresses many of these approaches as ways of interrogating how varied yet how similar they are in relation to the individual literary texts.

Mark Axelrod-Sokolov is professor of comparative literature in the Department of English at Chapman University, USA, and director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing and editor of its literary journal, 'Mantissa'.