The Routledge Companion to Literature and Identity

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Identity explores interactions between literature and identity from antiquity to the present. With expertise ranging from Sanskrit poetry to contemporary transgender fiction, contributors offer an extensive survey of the literature-identity nexus while probing literature’s transformative role in fashioning and revising cultural articulations of identity. Part One addresses scientific and philosophical accounts of identity in literature. The contributors reveal how neuroscience, philosophy, and affect theory enrich literary constructions of identity. Part Two explores historical permutations of identity in literature from ancient poetry to contemporary feminist fiction. Part Three focuses on literature’s relation to cultural, national, racial, and religious identity formation, also assessing contexts of diversity or conflict. Part Four traces relationships between literary genre and identity that foster innovation and transformation. The work consistently explores literary engagements with heteronormative and hybrid constructions of identity, whether these are intersectional, diasporic, immigrant or LGBTQ manifestations. The collection offers a comprehensive overview of the vibrant interdisciplinary field of literature and identity. It will be of interest to students and scholars wanting to expand their knowledge of this exciting area of research.