Migrating Minds

by Didier Coste (Editor), Christina Kkona (Editor), Nicoletta Pireddu (Editor)

Awarded the 2023 "René Wellek Prize for the Best Edited Essay Collection" by the American Comparative Literature Association, Migrating Minds contributes to the prominent interdisciplinary domain of Cosmopolitan Studies with 20 innovative essays by humanities scholars from all over the world that re-examine theories and practices of cosmopolitanism from a variety of perspectives. The volume satisfies the need for a stronger involvement of Comparative and World Literatures and Cultures, Translation, and Education Theories in this crucial debate, and also proposes an experimental way to explore in depth the necessity of a cosmopolitan method as well as the riches of cosmopolitan representations. The essays follow a logical progression from the situated philosophical and political foundations of the debate to interdisciplinary propositions for a pedagogy of cosmopolitanism through studies of modern and contemporary cosmopolitan cultural practices in literature and the arts and the concurrent analysis of prototypes of cosmopolitan identities. This trajectory allows readers to appreciate new historical, theoretical, aesthetic, and practical implications of cosmopolitanism that pertain to multiple genres and media, under different modes of production and reception. In the deterritorialized landscape of Migrating Minds , mental and sentimental mobility, rather than the legacy of place, is the key to an efficient, humanist response to deadening globalization.

322 pages, Hardcover

Published November 30, 2021

About the author

Didier Coste, a Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature (U. Bordeaux Montaigne) and a Fellow of JNIAS (JNU, New Delhi), has taught in 9 countries across the world, specialising in Poetics, Aesthetics, Narrative Theory and Translation Theory. A poet, novelist, translator, critic and theorist in French, English and Spanish, his many articles appeared in journals of France, the USA, India, Spain and Australia and in edited collections and encyclopedias. He was awarded the Grand Prix of the Société des Gens de Lettres for Literary Translation in 1977. His best-known theory book is Narrative as Communication (Minnesota UP, 1989). His latest novel is Days in Sydney (2005); latest published book of poetry: Anonymous of Troy (Sydney 2015). Forthcoming: 4 collections of poetry in English and a French translation of Pandavapuram by Sethumadhavan. In progress: Conversations with Hanuman: Essays in Indian and Comparative Literature; a bilingual anthology of León de Greiff; a translation of Goddess Poems by Annie Finch, and more