The world is spinning around us and we are spinning with it. When changes occur at the geopolitical level, inevitable changes also occur in people’s identity and in the way they see and represent the world. This book looks at this world with new eyes, approaching contemporary history (and herstory) from a scholarly perspective that cancels borders. Emphasis here is laid on migration, geopolitics, global citizenship, human rights, the EU and the non-EU, and East and West, as represented in fiction and drama or translated on television. The first part of the volume deals with migration and alterations in the non-Western world, with constant references to September 11, terrorism and wars, and the Syrian refugee crisis, before the focus moves on to one of the most important migration hosts nowadays, the European Union, discussing its expansion to the East, French President Macron’s call for renewal, and, lastly, a possible beginning of the end, announced by Brexit. This volume is a mirror of the discourses of globalization, one that makes the old self-other dichotomy obsolete. We are all selves in the eye of the storm that is raving around us, bringing change with it.

The world is spinning around us and we are spinning with it. When changes occur at the geopolitical level, inevitable changes also occur in people's identity and in the way they see and represent the world. This book looks at this world with new eyes, approaching contemporary history (and herstory) from a scholarly perspective that cancels borders. Emphasis here is laid on migration, geopolitics, global citizenship, human rights, the EU and the non-EU, and East and West, as represented in fiction and drama or translated on television. The first part of the volume deals with migration and alterations in the non-Western world, with constant references to September 11, terrorism and wars, and the Syrian refugee crisis, before the focus moves on to one of the most important migration hosts nowadays, the European Union, discussing its expansion to the East, French President Macron's call for renewal, and, lastly, a possible beginning of the end, announced by Brexit. This volume is a mirror of the discourses of globalization, one that makes the old self-other dichotomy obsolete. We are all selves in the eye of the storm that is raving around us, bringing change with it.

Fresh perspectives and eye-opening discussions of contemporary American fiction In The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a focused and in-depth collection of essays on some of the most significant and influential authors and literary subjects of the last four decades. Cutting-edge entries from established and new voices discuss subjects as varied as multiculturalism, contemporary regionalisms, realism after poststructuralism, indigenous narratives, globalism, and big data in the context of American fiction from the last 40 years. The Encyclopedia provides an overview of American fiction at the turn of the millennium as well as a vision of what may come. It perfectly balances analysis, summary, and critique for an illuminating treatment of the subject matter. This collection also includes: An exciting mix of established and emerging contributors from around the world discussing central and cutting-edge topics in American fiction studies Focused, critical explorations of authors and subjects of critical importance to American fiction Topics that reflect the energies and tendencies of contemporary American fiction from the forty years between 1980 and 2020 The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020 is a must-have resource for undergraduate and graduate students of American literature, English, creative writing, and fiction studies. It will also earn a place in the libraries of scholars seeking an authoritative array of contributions on both established and newer authors of contemporary fiction.

This volume looks into the ways in which film has contaminated and re-shaped culture(s) and the collective unconscious, at both local and global levels, arguing that our lives have been impacted by the ‘then’ that we keep revisiting, lest we forget. It takes the reader from the Berlin Wall to China, and from the terror of communist political prisons and labour camps to the rosy image promoted by propaganda. A key point throughout the text is its interdisciplinary nature, as it brings together literature and film scholars, directors, sociologists and philosophers, whose overall conclusion is that communism, lingering in mentalities, still needs interrogation. Structured along four parts which trace a Homeric (or rather Joycean) journey to a home metonymysed by the long-awaited freedom, this book sets out from the gloomiest aspects of totalitarianism in the Romanian, Serbian and Soviet ‘Hades(es)’ of traumatic psychological and physical experiences and of imposed silencing. The second part gathers together case studies of films illustrating more optimistic views of communism as ‘spring’ (in the USSR) or as a ‘golden age’ (in Romania), thus narcotising the communist ‘subjects’ and preventing them from seeing the actual inferno. The third section offers filmic accounts of the aftermaths of communism, engaging the readers in a nostalgic process that revisits, questions, reflects on and remembers communism on a larger, world stage. The coda rounds up the volume (and the journey therein) by crossing genre frontiers to written narratives with a cinematic component.

This timely book introduces readers to the central question of borders in the twenty-first century. After familiarizing readers with border thinking and making from antiquity to the present, Gabriel Popescu turns a critical eye on current border-making concepts, processes, and contexts. Throughout, he offers a balanced understanding of borders, explaining why and how interstate borders have emerged, whose interest they serve, who is involved in border making, and how border-making practices affect societies. Assessing the latest theoretical approaches to border studies, the author deftly incorporates a range of disciplinary perspectives, including geography, international relations, sociology, history, security studies, and anthropology. Popescu exploresrecent world events, discussing how current issues such as migration, terrorism, global warming, pandemics, the human rights regime, outsourcing, the economic crisis, supranational integration, regionalization, and digital technology relate to borders andinfluence our lives. Written with a clear eye and voice, this book makes a complex subject accessible to a wide readership.

This book illustrates the plethora of security concerns of the Americas in the 21st century. It presents the work of a number of prolific scholars and analysts in the continents of America. The book provides one of the only expansive applications of theory to a wide geographical area. It offers new perspectives and urges readers to take theory seriously through use. Within the Americas, we find a number of important issues that compose of this geographic security complex. Most important are the threats that supersede borders: drug trafficking, migration, health, and environment. These threats change our understanding of security and the state and region process of neutralizing or correcting these threats. This volume evaluates these threats within contemporary security discourse.

This book investigates the impact of social phenomena such as recently created nation states, emerging international confederations, cross-national migration, and contemporary global forces on ethnic and national identities in Europe and beyond. The articles in this volume are written by leading international scholars, based on a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches, and offer a multifaceted discussion of the challenging issue of collective identities.