The Art of Multiculturalism Bharati Mukherjee’s Imaginal Politics for the Age of Global Migration

This book describes what an “art of multiculturalism” could be and how in turn multiculturalism could be conceived as a form of art. It focuses on the early and middle work of Indian-born U.S. writer Bharati Mukherjee, in particular on her understanding of the “fusion” of literature and painting as a tool to inspire the creation of a “new global society” by empowering minorities through fostering and multiplying “differences in unity” and “unities in difference”. The book includes, in condensed ways, an explanation of Mukherjee’s use of ancient Indian painting techniques for postmodern writing; and it provides a short introduction to the relation between multiculturalism, postmodernity and “imaginal politics”. The book is written in an easy to read style accessible to all interested in the topic: high school and university students and teachers; those generally interested in the interface between literature, the arts and politics; and specialists in multicultural studies and global and international studies. The book is particularly suited to use in teaching.  

Roland Benedikter, Dott. lett. (Cultures and Literatures), Dr. rer. pol. (Political Science), Dr. phil. (Political Sociology), Dr. phil. (Educational Science), born 1965, is Co-Head of the  Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) of Eurac Research Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan, the research flagship of the trilingual Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, Northern Italy; Research Professor for Multidisciplinary Political Analysis in residence at the Willy Brandt Center of the University of Wroclaw-Breslau; Senior Research Scholar of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs Washington D.C.; Trustee of the Toynbee Prize Foundation Boston; and Full Member of the Club of Rome. 2009-2013 he served as Research Affiliate at the Europe Center of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; 2008-12 he was Full Academic Fellow of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Washington D.C; and 2008-2015 he was Research Scholar of Multidisciplinary Political Analysis – 2009-13 withthe function of European Foundation Research Professor of Multidisciplinary Political Analysis in residence at the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies of the University of California, Santa Barbara. 1995-2003 he was active in European cultural and ethnic minority politics. He has published 20 books, 18 encyclopedia articles and more than 300 peer reviewed essays on the interface of politics, societies and cultures. 

Judith Hilber, Prof. Dott. lett. (American and English Literature and Culture), MA, born 1968, is a tenured College Professor of English at the Technological College (TFO Max Valier) Bolzano-Bozen-Bulsan, Italy. She studied English and American Language and Literature at the Universities of Innsbruck (Austria), Exeter (UK) and at the University of California at Berkeley. She has authored essays on postmodernity and cultural diversity, including an essay on Jacques Derrida’s concept of science and an article in the Open Journal of Philosophy (together with Roland Benedikter): The Postmodern Mind. A Re-Consideration of John Ashbery’s ‘Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror’ (1975) from the Viewpoint of an Interdisciplinary History of Ideas.