Migrants Shaping Europe, Past and Present: Multilingual Literatures, Arts, and Cultures - Hardcover

by Helen Solterer (Editor), Vincent Joos (Editor)

This pioneering volume explores the contribution of migrants to European culture from the early modern era to today. It takes culture as an aesthetic and social activity of making, one practised by migrants on the move and also by those who represent their lives in an act of support. Adopting a multilingual approach, the book interprets the aesthetics and political practices developed by and with migrants in Spain, Italy and France. It juxtaposes early modern and modern work with contemporary, reconceiving migrants as crucial agents of change. Scholars and artists track people on the move within the continent and without, drawing a significant map for the cultural history of migration around Europe.

Back Jacket

"Highly imaginative in conception and design, this book oscillates between medieval and modern to consider the migrant, the border-breaker, the refugee. Resisting anglocentric approaches, its contributors consider how written and visual arts might variously offer, for those lacking homelands, some place to live."
David Wallace, Judith Rodin Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania

Author Biography

Helen Solterer is Professor of French and Francophone & Romance Studies at Duke University