The problem of identity is one of the key issues in the present discourse on multiculturalism. This volume brings together historians, cultural theorists, literary scholars and political scientists whose common aim is to address questions of identity and identity formation in multicultural societies, concentrating on European historical models and current questions and perspectives. The challenging, progressive or positive aspects relating to multiculturalism appear in a sharper focus in this strongly interdisciplinary collection, compared to other volumes which generally tend to concentrate on the “problematic” or limiting aspects of this important phenomenon of contemporary European societies.

Aus dem Inhalt: G. Fischer, Multicultural Identities: European Perspectives P. M. Lützeler, Moving in Circles: Identity Formation in the Postmodern Condition G. Stilz, “Homo alter et idem”. Questioned Identities in Colonial and Postcolonial Writing M. Kessler, Rupturing Heredity: Fluxions of Identity, Postmodern Discourse, and the Meaning of Race B. Tibi, Between Communitarianism and Euro-Islam. Europe, Multicultural Identities and the Challenge of Migration M. Rosengarten, Transmigrating Organs. Identity, Politics and Bio-Medical Technology S. Attar, Beyond Family, History, Religion and Language. The Construction of a Cosmopolitan Identity in a Twelfth Century Arabic Philosophical Novel J. Docker, “1492”: Dystopia and Utopia I. Mc Calman, Queen of the Gutter: The Lives and Fictions of Jeanne la Motte C. E. Forth, Universalising the Particular: Jewishness and the Body in the Dreyfus Affair J. H. Voigt, “On Virgin Soil”: Freiherr Ferdinand von Mueller in Australia. A European Scientist’s Search for Identity O. Luthar, The Bud of Europe. Inter- and Multicultural Relationships in Central Europe G. Mattenklott, Between Mediterranean and Oceania: Malinowski and European Ehtnological and Anthropological Travelogues K. Weissenberger, Transcending the Limitations of Exile. Topoi of Literary Self-Proclamation E. Pedersen, Jewish Identities 1900–1945: The Fate of Henry William Katz M. Shafi, Friends, Enemies, Countrymen: Representations of Foreigners in Contemporary German and Austrian Literature M. Jurgensen, Transformative Identities of Literary Multiculturalism