Globalization, it seems, either holds the promise of new horizons and new worlds, or trammels local cultures and produces uniformity. Here, Maria Koundoura strikes a singular path between these divergent views and maps the full terrain of our contemporary culture landscape. Reading world literature and engaging with contemporary critical methodologies, she explores what she calls transnational visions of language and culture, and analyses the politics of identity, representation and cultural expression. She thus presents a history of the aesthetic of our moment in modernity, and situates that moment in the economics of the global culture market and the ethics of cultural translation. Offering a model for addressing key questions of contemporary culture, identity and globalization, this book will be invaluable for all those interested in cultural and postcolonial studies, diaspora and globalization studies, as well as world literature.

Maria Koundoura is Associate Professor of Literature at Emerson College, Boston, and holds a PhD from the English Department of Stanford University. She is the Editor of The Journal of Modern Greek Studies and author of The Greek Idea: The Formation of National and Transnational Identities (I.B.Tauris, 2007).