The World Within : Self-perception and images of the other in German literatures and cultures

What is the "self" and the "foreign" in the age of globalisation? How should a culture or a nation define itself and how would individuals deal with questions of identity in a world in which the belonging to a culture or to a nation no longer provides relatively stable categories for the formation and articulation of identity?

This book provides in-depth analysis of literary and biographical texts, film and performance practices in the German-speaking countries from the 17th century to the present and offers a study of the links and demarcations between language, culture and identity.